E  OF 


THE  MES 
DAVID  SWING 


EDITED,  WTH INTRODUCTIONS 

JEWELL  DWIGHT  HILLIS 


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The  Message  of  David  Swing 
to  His  Generation 


By  Newell  Dwight  Hillis 


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The  Message  of  David  Swing 
to  His  Generation 

Addresses  and  Papers 


With  an 
Introductory  Memorial  Address  by 

NEWELL  DWIGHT  HILLIS 


NEW  YORK  CHICAGO  TORONTO 

Fleming  H.   Revell    Company 
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Copyright,  1913,  by 
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Contents 


MEMORIAL  ADDRESS  .... 

9 

By  Newell  Dwight  Hillis 

ADDRESSES  AND  PAPERS        .         . 

3i 

By  David  Swing 

American 

I. 

WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN,  I 

33 

TI. 

WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN,  II    . 

54 

III. 

JAMES  A.  GARFIELD    .... 

72 

IV. 

CHARLES  SUMNER       .... 

88 

V. 

WENDELL  PHILLIPS     .... 

107 

VI. 

HENRY  WARD  BEECHER 

124 

VII. 

PHILLIPS  BROOKS        .... 

'39 

VIII. 

DECORATION  DAY      .... 

'59 

IX. 

THE    DUTY   OF   THE    PULPIT,  IN   THE 

HOUR  OF  SOCIAL  UNREST 

176 

Foreign 

X. 

A  ROMAN  HOME        .... 

199 

xr. 

DANTE     ...... 

232 

XII. 

MARTIN  LUTHER        .... 

260 

XIII. 

VICTOR  HUGO  ..... 

278 

INDEX      .         .         .         .         . 

294 

The  Message  of  David  Swing 

A  Memorial  Address 
By  Newell  Dwight  Hillis 


A  MEMORIAL  ADDRESS1 

By  Newell  Dwight  Hillis 

\  SSEMBLED  again  within  these  familiar 
,/JL  walls,  affection  claims  her  rights  and 
memory  tells  us  that  now  years  have  passed 
away  since  he  who  was  at  once  our  pastor, 
teacher,  sage,  and  seer  gave  forth  his  final 
word  before  passing  on  forever. 

For  twenty  years  and  more  the  eager  mul- 
titudes who  loved  him  thronged  and  crowded 
here,  where  he  informed  of  beauty,  traced 
the  rugged  truth,  gave  men  vision  and  divine 
uplift.  And  other  multitudes  there  were, 
whose  feet  indeed  have  never  trod  these  aisles, 
but  who  were  wont  to  wait  each  week  for  his 
printed  words,  and  when  his  message  closed, 
they  were  as  desert  pilgrims  who  found  the 
heavenly  manna  had  ceased  to  fall,  the  great 
rock  had  ceased  to  flow  in  cooling  streams. 
Unceasingly  with  pen  and  voice  did  he  ply 
men  with  motives  of  culture  and  duty,  seek- 

1  Delivered  October,  1895,  in  Central  Church,  Chi- 
cago, where  Professor  Swing  was  succeeded  in  pastorate 
by  the  speaker. 

9 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

ing  by  light  and  darkness,  by  hope  and  love 
to  make  men  patriots,  Christians — the  ver- 
itable sons  of  God.  Oft  did  he  rejoice  in 
our  good  fortune ;  full  oft  was  he  touched 
with  our  griefs ;  a  thousand  times  he  pointed 
out  for  us  the  paths  wherein  lay  the  most  of 
happiness  and  the  most  of  peace ;  and  when 
at  last  his  great  friendly  presence  was  with- 
drawn from  our  homes  and  streets  we  found 
ourselves  looking  with  altered  eyes  upon  an 
altered  world. 

"When  the  news  of  his  death  came,  it  was 
with  us  as  with  Phillips  Brooks  when  he 
learned  of  the  death  of  his  friend  Kichard- 
son,  the  architect  of  Trinity  Church.  In 
that  hour  the  great  preacher  turned  to  the 
window,  and  in  silence  gazed  long  into  the 
open  sky.  "  It  is  as  if  one  should  wake  to 
find  the  mountain  which  one's  window  had 
always  faced,  and  upon  which  one's  eyes  had 
always  looked,  suddenly  and  forever  gone." 
And  now  though  the  first  full  year  is  past, 
the  vanished  feet  still  walk  with  us,  the 
silenced  voice  still  whispers  in  our  dreams. 
Knitting  our  brows  to  the  daily  task,  we 
have  proved  that  death  does  exalt  those  who 
remain  to  weep ;  that  our  sorrows  must  en- 
noble duties,  not  end  them  ;  that  our  tombs 
10 


A  Memorial  Address 

/ 

and  our  tasks  are  entangled ;  that  the  rich 
blossoms  of  the  heart  grow  crimson,  nour- 
ished by  our  graves.  And  so  we  are  here 
to-day  to  keep  a  tryst  with  memory,  to  re- 
mind ourselves  of  what  our  friend  was ;  what 
were  the  forces  and  causes  that  made  him 
so ;  and  by  every  motive  of  honour,  to  pledge 
ourselves  anew  to  duty,  to  culture,  to  beauty, 
to  God,  to  His  divine  and  human  Son  who 
taught  His  servant  how  to  "  dip  His  sword," 
not  in  blood,  but  "  in  heaven." 

To-day  in  this  presence  we  remember  that 
the  true  measure  of  a  city's  civilization  is  the 
kind  of  man  it  reveres  and  loves.  Dying, 
Lord  Bacon  said :  "  I  leave  my  name  and 
fame  to  foreign  lands,  and  to  my  country- 
men when  some  time  be  past."  It  was  to 
the  shame  of  Florence  that  a  century  rolled 
by  before  her  citizens  were  able  to  appreciate 
the  exiled  Dante,  whose  genius  redeemed 
Florence  out  of  meanness  and  obscurity. 
Ours  is  a  world  where  the  fathers  kill  the 
prophet  to  whose  tomb  the  children  throng 
in  innumerable  multitudes.  But  it  is  to  the 
lasting  praise  of  our  city,  and  proves  how 
high  our  society  has  risen  in  the  scale  of  re- 
finement and  character,  that  in  his  lifetime 
an  eager  hearing  was  given  to  this  sage,  who 
II 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

spake  of  pure  morals,  whose  theme  was  the 
folly  of  ignorance  and  vice,  and  the  suprem- 
acy of  truth  and  duty. 

We  know  that  eloquence  is  partly  in  the 
orator's  charm ;  another  part  is  the  kindling 
response  of  the  appreciative  hearer.  And 
that  generation  must  have  loved  the  higher 
life  and  been  touched  to  the  finer  issues,  that 
loved  this  man  who  was  the  most  refined  of 
American  preachers,  and  whose  sermons  and 
essays  have  a  certain  grace  and  delicacy  and 
sweet  completeness  that  make  them  alto- 
gether unique.  Always  our  loves  tell  us 
what  we  are,  and  foretell  what  our  children 
are  to  be.  Whenever  Providence  would 
order  a  forward  movement  of  society,  He 
raises  up  some  giant  who  capitalizes  the  new 
spirit.  Howard,  Garrison,  Lincoln  com- 
pacted in  themselves  the  diffused  ideas  of 
philanthropy,  reform,  liberty,  and  then  flamed 
these  ideas  forth  upon  the  common  people. 
Looking  to  these  heroic  leaders,  soon  the 
multitude  went  up  and  took  a  place  beside 
them. 

It  seems,  therefore,  like  a  special  token  of 
divine  favour  that  God  sent  us  this  man  to 
capitalize  before  our  people  ideas  of  taste 
and  beauty ;  of  patriotism,  liberty  and  re- 

12 


A  Memorial  Address 

ligion.  For  not  our  harbours  crowded  with 
ships,  not  our  lakes  fringed  with  forests,  not 
our  mines,  our  factories  and  our  stores  stuffed 
with  treasure  have  been  God's  best  gift  to 
this  people :  God's  best  gift  has  been  the  gift 
of  great  men  like  Lincoln  in  statecraft ;  like 
Grant  in  defense  of  country;  like  Beecher 
and  Brooks  and  Swing  as  teachers  of  religion. 
And  to-day  it  is  a  source  of  ]oy  and  gratitude 
unspeakable,  that  here  to  this  new,  rude, 
bustling  city  Providence  sent  one  who  seems 
like  some  Plato  lifted  out  of  his  Athenian 
groves,  and  set  down  in  the  midst  of  our 
booths  and  markets,  to  build  for  us  a  temple 
with  pure  Ionic  lines :  to  light  upon  its  altars 
the  sacred  Hebrew  flame. 

Recognizing  his  masterful  genius,  our 
editors,  authors,  and  people  have  come  to 
rank  David  Swing  with  the  great  pulpiteers 
of  our  generation.  Comparing  mind  with 
mind,  we  speak  of  Spurgeon  as  devotional, 
Beecher  as  philosophical,  Brooks  as  inspi- 
rational, Swing  as  poetical.  Seeking  a  sym- 
bol of  the  qualities  of  each,  we  say  that 
Spurgeon  was  a  speaking  trumpet,  Brooks 
was  a  flaming  heart,  Beecher  was  a  quaking 
thunderbolt,  Swing  a  singing  harp.  But 
when  many  attempts  have  been  made  to 
13 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

search  out  the  power  of  this  poet-preacher, 
his  secret  still  remains  a  mystery.  Until  we 
know  why  the  rose  is  sweet,  or  the  sunbeam 
light,  or  the  babe  divine,  we  cannot  know 
why  the  seer  is  the  best  benefactor  of  hu- 
manity. 

George  William  Curtis  tells  us  that  while 
the  poet's  power  is  less  dramatic,  less  obvi- 
ous, imposing,  and  immediate  than  the  power 
of  the  statesman,  the  warrior,  and  the  in- 
ventor, yet  his  influence  is  as  deep,  strong 
and  abiding.  For  while  the  soldier  fights 
for  his  native  land,  the  poet  clothes  that  land 
with  charm  and  fires  the  warrior's  heart  with 
energy  invincible;  while  the  statesman  or- 
ganizes liberty,  the  poet  feeds  the  sacred 
fires  ;  while  the  inventor  multiplies  the  con- 
veniences of  life,  the  poet  deepens  the  life- 
spring  itself.  To-day  we  may  not  fully  un- 
derstand the  power  of  our  poet  and  seer,  but 
we  joyfully  confess  that  he  revealed  to  us 
our  deeper  convictions,  filled  us  with  fervour 
and  aspiration,  and,  in  an  age  of  fret  and 
fume,  lifted  us  into  the  realm  of  tranquillity, 
through  parable  and  poem  teaching  us  where 
were  the  paths  leading  unto  happiness  and 
peace. 

When  Macaulay  was  shown  the  vast  clus- 
14 


A  Memorial  Address 

tering  vine  in  Hampton  Court,  with  a  trunk 
like  unto  a  tree,  he  expressed  a  wish  to  be- 
hold the  mother  root  in  Spain  from  which 
this  scion  was  cut.  Similarly,  we  confess  to 
an  eager  desire  to  trace  the  ancestral  forces 
that  united  in  this  elect  child  of  genius.  No 
great  man  appears  suddenly.  Ancestral 
momentum  explains  unusual  strength.  The 
foot-hills  slope  upward  towards  the  mountain- 
minded  man.  Each  Emerson  has  back  of 
him  seven  generations  of  scholars  who  seem 
the  favourites  of  heaven.  Back  of  Henry 
"Ward  Beecher  was  a  father  who  was  at  once 
a  moral  hero  and  an  intellectual  giant,  and  a 
mother  who  shot  the  sturdy  Beecher  type 
through  and  through  with  rich,  warm,  glow- 
ing tones.  Thus  the  students  have  traced 
our  friend  Swing's  parentage  back  to  the 
border-lines  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine.  There 
we  front  the  old  German  stock, — philo- 
sophical, scholarly,  ponderous,  yet  mystical 
and  a  dreamer  of  dreams.  And  over  against 
the  German  stands  the  Norman,  with  a  cer- 
tain lightness  and  nimbleness  of  mind — 
graceful,  imaginative,  full  of  rollicking  hu- 
mour— his  speech  all  rippling  with  sunshine 
and  his  lips  bubbling  over  with  lyric  song. 
And  Providence  ordained  that  all  the  best 
15 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

qualities  of  these  two  types  should  converge 
and  meet  in  this  poet-preacher.  As  for  the 
rest,  all  is  veiled.  His  genius  is  an  unread 
riddle. 

When  the  explorer  has  traced  the  river 
Nile  back  to  the  initial  lake  he  has  still  fallen 
short  of  the  source  of  that  mighty  stream. 
Above  him  in  the  distant  clouds  are  the 
secret  invisible  agencies  out  of  which  issue 
the  summer's  storms  and  the  winter's  snows 
that  fill  the  springs  and  crowd  the  water  on 
in  massy  flow.  And  the  secret  of  greatness 
is  partly  ancestral,  but  chiefly  divine.  God 
breathes  it.  Its  sources  are  in  that  holy  of 
holies  where  dwell  clouds  and  thick  dark- 
ness. There  God  girded  this  man  for  his 
task,  and  sent  him  forth  with  faculties  like 
the  prophet's  sword. 

Searching  out  the  essential  qualities  of  his 
sermons,  an  English  author  has  said :  "  Other 
sermons  are  logical  or  instructive  or  inspir- 
ing, but  Swing's  always  add  that  element  of 
beauty  that  turns  language  into  literature." 
Misunderstanding  this  aesthetic  element,  some 
men  have  been  captious  and  critical.  But 
with  David  Swing  beauty  was  no  mere 
mush  of  aesthetics ;  no  mere  love  of  decora- 
tion and  ornament.  Beauty  with  him  was 
16 


A  Memorial  Address 

not  the  frosting  upon  the  cake ;  nor  veneer 
upon  the  world  ;  nor  Horace's  purple  patch 
upon  a  humble  garment.  Beauty  was  ripe- 
ness, soundness,  maturity.  Ugliness  spake 
of  broken  laws.  He  saw  that  the  pink  flush 
upon  the  cheek  of  the  babe  or  maiden  meant 
perfect  health,  and  that  the  muddiness  in  the 
drunkard's  eye  was  the  sediment  of  sin.  The 
soft  flush  upon  the  plum  or  purple  cluster 
and  the  robe  of  loveliness  cast  o'er  the  yel- 
low harvest  fields  was  God's  way  of  saying 
that  His  work  was  done,  that  things  had 
come  to  ripeness  and  touched  the  limit  of 
their  growth. 

He  knew  that  when  conversation  was  car- 
ried up  unto  beauty  it  became  eloquence ; 
that  knowledge  carried  up  unto  beauty  be- 
came wisdom  and  refinement ;  that  hut- 
building  carried  up  unto  beauty  became 
temple-rearing  ;  while  the  man  who  was  just 
and  gentle  stood  forth  before  his  admiring 
vision  with  a  moral  beauty  beyond  that  of 
an  Apollo.  Therefore  he  revolted  from  sin 
as  from  a  form  of  ugliness  and  vulgarity. 
As  Shakespeare  passed  by  the  vixen  and 
scold  to  select  an  Imogen  or  Rosalind,  as 
Titian  preferred  the  noble  soldier's  face  be- 
fore lago's,  dimmed  with  passion  and  seamed 
17 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

with  sensuality,  so  with  winning  grace  Swing 
placed  his  gentle  emphasis  upon  whatsoever 
things  were  lovely,  whatsoever  things  were 
pure,  seeking  to  bring  men  unto  that  har- 
mony and  symmetry  that  betray  the  beauty 
of  God  upon  them. 

Here  in  this  vast  centre  of  greed  and  gain, 
where  Mammon  threatens  to  master  men, 
where  youth  is  charmed  with  the  glitter  of 
coin  as  birds  with  the  glitter  of  snakes'  eyes, 
where  stores  and  the  treasure  in  them,  fac- 
tories and  the  wealth  by  them  eclipse  the 
hidden  things  of  the  soul,  here  he  stood  for 
twenty  years  urging  that  the  beautiful  is  the 
useful,  that  life  is  more  than  meat,  that 
earth  is  not  a  stable,  its  food  not  fodder,  nor 
its  children  beasts,  but  that  man  is  what  he 
is  at  his  best  estate  when  he  dwells  in  the 
realm  of  knowledge  and  hope  and  love. 
Only  the  next  generation  can  tell  how  much 
he  did  to  strengthen  those  sentiments  that 
manifest  themselves  in  libraries,  museums, 
art-galleries,  institutions  of  higher  education. 
But  it  is  for  this  generation  to  be  grateful 
that  God  saw  our  city's  need,  and  raised  him 
up  to  be  with  others  what  Bacon  calls  an 
"  architect  of  states." 

"We  who  love  him  know  that  another 
18 


A  Memorial  Address 

striking  characteristic  was  the  seer-like  qual- 
ity of  his  thinking.  Many  of  his  sermons 
were  visions  into  which  were  gathered  all  our 
hopes  and  aspirations,  all  our  ideals,  with 
their  sweet  torment  and  discontent,  with 
their  certain  triumph  and  victory.  In  these 
higher  moods  he  saw  things  unseen,  dreamed 
dreams,  fought  battles,  and  sometimes  per- 
ceived afar  off  that  glad  day  when  the  col- 
umns of  society  should  encamp  upon  the 
heights  and  hang  out  signals  of  victory. 
Nothing  proves  the  creative  mind  like  this 
imaginative  element.  Beholding  a  tree,  the 
strict  pragmatist  sees  nothing  but  fire- wood. 
His  unit  of  measurement  is  a  tape-line,  and 
he  estimates  its  moral  value  in  terms  of  heat 
and  flame.  He  fears  exceedingly  when  the 
seer  declares  that  a  tree's  chief  use  is  to  tell 
of  the  goings  of  God  among  the  branches ; 
that  a  tree  sings  hymns  and  is  a  hostelry  of 
delight ;  that  a  tree  is  a  living  creature, — its 
song  perfume,  its  words  fruit.  But  the  tree 
presents  these  aspects,  and  the  seer  must  tell 
what  he  sees. 

The  imagination  is  a  prophet.     It  is  God's 

forerunner.      It    plants    hard    problems    as 

seeds,  rears  these  germs  into  trees,  and  from 

them  gathers  the  ripe  fruit.     It  wins  victo- 

19 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

ries  before  battles  are  fought.  It  works  in 
many  realms.  Without  it  civilization  would 
be  impossible.  Working  in  things  useful  it 
enables  Watt  to  organize  his  engine  ;  work- 
ing amid  the  beautiful,  it  fashions  pictures 
and  rears  cathedrals  ;  working  with  ideas,  it 
creates  intellectual  systems ;  working  in 
morals,  it  constructs  ethical  systems ;  work- 
ing towards  immortality,  it  bids  cooling 
streams,  fruitful  trees,  sweet  sounds,  all  noble 
friends'  lips,  report  themselves  beyond  the 
grave.  For  faith  itself  is  but  the  imagina- 
tion allied  with  confidence  that  God  is  able 
to  realize  all  our  highest  ideals. 

Without  this  seer-like  element  life  would 
be  utterly  unendurable,  and  society  would 
perish  under  sheer  weight  of  drudgery. 
Each  youthful  Clay  endures  the  privations 
of  the  corn  field,  each  Garfield  the  pain  and 
poverty  of  the  canal  path,  because  imagina- 
tion unveils  the  future  and  reveals  a  day 
when  the  youth  shall  build  thrones,  lead 
armies,  organize  laws.  And  each  reformer 
endures  as  did  the  prisoner  in  the  Castle  of 
Chillon.  When  the  little  seed  sprang  up  in 
his  cell  he  saw  the  tiny  plant  swell  into  the 
stature  of  a  tree ;  tropical  birds  sang  in  its 
branches ;  flowers  grew  over  its  roots  ;  chil- 
20 


A  Memorial  Address 

dren  were  grateful  for  its  shade;  storms 
moved  towards  it  from  the  distant  snow- 
capped mountains.  Imagination  enlarged 
that  little  plant  until  it  became  a  forest,  and 
widened  the  prisoner's  cell  into  a  universe. 
Without  imagination  no  man  can  become  a 
preacher,  and  this  divine  gift  was  David 
Swing's.  By  it  he  stripped  off  the  hull  of 
dogma  and  found  the  sweet  kernel.  With  it 
he  explained  riddles.  It  helped  him  exalt 
life's  commonplaces.  Under  its  touch  moral 
principles  that  were  dead  and  uninviting  be- 
came as  dry  roots,  smitten  in  summer  into 
fruit  and  beauty.  This  preeminent  faculty 
in  him  turned  his  sermons  into  moral  poems, 
pictures,  gardens,  landscapes.  Therefore, 
also  Dr.  Barrows'  words  :  "  If  that  which  is 
keyed  to  universal  truth  is  not  to  be  out- 
grown, why  should  not  men  and  women 
read  for  generations  the  thoughts  of  David 
Swing  ?  " 

And  you  who  heard  him  here  know  that 
he  was  a  sublime  optimist.  He  believed  in 
the  triumph  of  goodness.  Pessimism  seemed 
to  him  a  vulgar  form  of  atheism.  He  saw 
God  abroad  everywhere  leavening  society  as 
yeast.  Growth  was  the  spirit  of  the  ages 
and  the  genius  of  the  universe.  Looking 
21 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

backward  he  saw  all  creation  set  forth  upon 
an  upward  march.  The  stars  revolved.  The 
dead  crust  of  the  earth  rose  up  into  conscious 
life.  The  vegetable  kingdom  stood  erect  and 
drew  near  to  the  animal  realm.  "  The  very 
beasts  felt  something  stirring  in  them,  and 
journeyed  upward.  Man,  too,  as  if  he  heard 
the  music  drowsily  and  afar  off,  joined  the 
strange  procession  and  moved  upward  also." 
Afar  off  he  perceived  the  extinction  of  ig- 
norance and  sin,  and  the  triumph  of  good- 
ness. That  he  was  not  impatient  of  the  slow- 
ness of  social  progress  argues  his  greatness. 
Mr.  Gladstone  once  said  that  the  contentment 
of  the  people  was  largely  their  blindness  to  a 
better  way ;  that  to-day's  institutions  are 
concessions  made  to  ignorance  and  fear. 
When,  therefore,  we  consider  that  the  veil 
was  lifted  before  this  man's  vision  so  that 
he  saw  a  thousand  wrongs  that  might  be 
righted,  a  thousand  abuses  that  might  be 
wiped  away,  a  thousand  reforms  that  should 
to-day  be  achieved,  we  marvel  at  his  patience, 
his  buoyancy,  his  hopefulness,  his  optimism. 
But  he  stayed  himself  on  God,  with  whom 
"  a  thousand  years  are  but  as  one  day." 

"When  he  saw  the  church  journeying  for- 
ward in  an  ox-cart,  he  foretold  the  day  when 
22 


A  Memorial  Address 

man's  heart  and  conscience  should  move  for- 
ward with  the  speed  and  comfort  with 
which  his  body  travels.  When  he  saw  man 
dispirited  with  his  own  littleness,  he  whis- 
pered that  eloquence  and  art  came  through 
great  thoughts  and  themes ;  that  Christian- 
ity's vision  made  Dante ;  that  paradise  made 
Milton ;  that  a  madonna  made  Kaphael. 
And  so  he  fed  the  hope  that  the  greatness 
of  Jesus  Christ  would  repeat  itself  in  each 
loving  heart,  even  as  the  sun  sets  and  re- 
peats its  colours  in  the  topaz  and  ruby. 
When  he  saw  men  discouraged  whose  secret 
cry  was  "  No  man  careth  for  my  soul,"  who 
seemed  like  King  Lear  driven  on  in  the 
night,  with  head  white  and  uncovered  before 
the  storm,  he  pointed  these  discouraged  ones 
to  the  golden  clouds  and  the  mountain  peaks, 
and  urged  that  above  and  beyond  them  was 
One  whose  footprints  are  on  the  hills,  whose 
song  is  in  the  summer,  whose  bosom  is  love, 
whose  face  and  presence  will  explain  all  our 
hard  problems. 

And  when  at  last  he  saw  men  standing 
about  the  open  grave  of  falling  statesman, 
dying  woman,  sleeping  child,  he  whispered 
that  for  Lincoln  and  Tennyson  to  continue 
beyond  the  grave  is  less  wonderful  than  that 
23 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

they  should  enter  the  cradle ;  that  the  hero 
and  the  martyr  and  the  beauteous  mother 
are  not  journeying  forward  under  the  em- 
brace of  divine  laws  towards  a  black  hole  in 
the  ground,  but  towards  a  door  that  opens 
into  heaven ;  that  a  second  life  and  a  read- 
justment beyond  is  the  only  explanation  of 
the  death  angel  moving  through  our  streets ; 
that  the  Divine  Form  standing  in  the  shadow 
behind  man,  the  divine  laws  girding  man 
about,  the  divine  river  that  sweeps  man's 
spirit  on,  the  divine  affection  for  dear  ones 
that  strengthens  as  the  body  weakens,  all 
these  unite  to  feed  the  hope  that  beyond  the 
grave  there  stand  Divine  Arms  outstretched, 
waiting  to  receive  man's  soul. 

The  world  spake  of  William  Pitt  as  "  the 
Great  Commoner,"  because  he  dealt  in  the 
universal  truths  of  liberty,  even  as  science 
deals  with  universal  propositions  about  land 
and  sea  and  sky.  Thus,  in  the  realm  of 
morals,  David  Swing  laid  all  his  emphasis 
upon  the  common-sense  principles  that  are 
related  to  men,  not  as  Protestants  or  Catho- 
lics, but  to  men  as  the  children  of  God.  He 
caused  Christianity  to  stand  forth  as  a  simple 
single  shaft.  He  saw  that  when  a  cathedral 
was  mingled  with  booths  and  shops  and 
24 


A  Memorial  Address 

ruined  cottages,  the  grandeur  of  the  temple 
was  injured  by  surroundings  that  have  in 
them  no  greatness.  He  saw  that  a  mountain 
surrounded  by  foot-hills  for  hundreds  of 
miles  was  obscured  by  its  very  complexity. 
Recalling  St.  Peter's,  he  remembered  that 
the  architects  were  enemies,  and  that  the 
artists  quarrelled  bitterly.  But  the  temple 
grew  in  grandeur  because  the  columns  and 
arches  cast  off  the  quarrels  of  human  life. 
Eising  into  the  sky  it  absorbed  the  genius 
and  love  of  each  architect,  but  left  his  strife 
and  his  chips  to  perish  below. 

He  also  knew  that  the  human  mind  work- 
ing in  the  realm  of  theology  had  been  simi- 
larly untrustworthy,  oft  maligning  God,  full 
oft  bringing  Christianity  into  contempt. 
Therefore  he  sought  a  simple  religion.  He 
confined  himself  to  a  common-sense  statement 
of  universal  principles.  He  saw  that  God 
made  iron,  but  not  tools ;  pigments,  but  not 
paintings  ;  forests,  but  not  furniture ;  reason 
and  conscience,  but  not  creeds  and  politics. 
But  he  saw  also  that  thought  determined 
deeds,  and  that  right  living  comes  out  of 
sound  thinking.  And  so  instead  of  begin- 
ning at  the  realm  where  we  know  least,  and 
working  towards  the  known,  he  began  with 
25 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

the  realm  where  we  know  most,  and  worked 
towards  the  unknown.  Therefore,  spake  he 
of  man  and  his  divine  possibilities,  his  social 
duties,  his  civil  obligations,  the  development 
of  his  reason,  the  training  of  his  taste  and 
imagination,  the  enrichment  of  affection,  the 
culture  of  heart  and  conscience.  Oft  he 
gave  the  rambling  vine  a  new  support  and 
pruned  away  the  dead  and  leafless  stalk. 
Many,  misunderstanding  this,  shed  bitter 
tears  and  filled  the  air  with  noise  and  strife. 
But  he  kept  at  his  work,  for  he  loved  that 
vine  as  much  as  they,  and  pruned  it  that  the 
multitudes  might  find  beneath  it  their  shade 
and  shelter.  He  remembered  that  all  the 
great  ones  of  history  stood  forth  in  an 
"  alluring  atmosphere  of  genius,  truth,  and 
beauty."  He  knew  that  man  could  never 
worship  a  defective  God.  Therefore  he 
sought  to  cause  God,  as  interpreted  by  Jesus 
Christ,  to  rise  before  men  in  such  a  holy  and 
alluring  form  that  each  heart  would  ask  the 
world  to  join  in  its  anthem.  During  his  life 
he  sometimes  destroyed.  But  it  was  only 
destroying  the  flower  that  the  fruit  might 
swell,  the  bursting  of  the  bark  that  the  tree 
might  grow.  All  his  destroying  was  for  the 
sake  of  saving. 

26 


A  Memorial  Address 

Our  city's  debt  to  him  cannot  be  measured. 
Searching  out  the  beginnings  of  our  institu- 
tions, Bancroft  says,  "  We  can  never  disasso- 
ciate our  national  greatness  and  our  religious 
teachers."  Guizot  said  Luther  made  Ger- 
many. Choate  believed  that  Calvin  shaped 
the  Swiss  Eepublic.  Macaulay  found  the 
springs  of  English  literature  in  the  King 
James  version  of  the  Bible.  "When  Spurgeon 
died  Mr.  Gladstone  was  quoted  as  saying: 
"  This  dissenter  did  more  for  England  than 
any  statesman  of  his  generation."  The  ex- 
planation is,  all  wealth  and  material  great- 
ness begin  in  the  mental  and  moral  life  of 
the  people.  Things  are  first  thoughts.  The 
doing  that  makes  commerce  begins  with  the 
thinking  that  makes  scholars.  Tools,  rail- 
ways, cities,  books,  institutions  are  but  the 
inner  life,  crystallizing  into  material  form. 
Wake  up  man's  taste,  and  he  paints  pictures ; 
wake  up  his  reason,  and  he  writes  books; 
wake  up  his  justice,  and  he  works  reforms ; 
wake  up  his  conscience,  and  he  cleanses  his 
city  from  abuses.  The  beginnings  of  na- 
tional greatness  are  not  in  things  without, 
but  in  citizens  made  fertile  and  rich  in  re- 
source. 

Happy  this  city,  that  produced  this  man. 
27 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

and  enjoyed  his  presence  through  this,  the 
most  plastic  and  strenuous  period  of  its  his- 
tory !  And  happy  seer ;  to  whom  God  has 
given  so  great  opportunity !  Ah,  David 
Swing,  David  Swing !  The  memory  of  thy 
sweet  reasonableness  is  upon  us.  Still  is  thy 
friendly  presence  here,  like  a  gentle  atmos- 
phere. Oft  didst  thou  charm  the  fever  from 
our  brain,  the  fear  and  anxiety  from  our 
heart.  Full  oft  thou  didst  release  us  from 
thrall  and  doubt,  seeking  ever  to  make  us 
citizens  of  God's  universe.  Thy  tireless  in- 
dustry doth  rebuke  us,  until,  with  the  Athe- 
nian, we  murmur :  "  The  trophies  of  Miltiades 
will  not  let  us  sleep."  Thy  courage  and  thy 
hopefulness  do  still  inspire  us,  for  as  the 
Scottish  warriors  in  Spain  flung  the  heart  of 
the  Bruce  far  into  the  hosts  of  the  Saracens, 
and  by  bravery  reclaimed  it,  so  thou  didst 
fling  thy  heart  forward  to  "  the  feet  of  the 
Eternal,"  and  in  death  found  it  again.  Here 
and  now  we  recall  thy  early  struggles  ;  the 
harsh  winds  that  did  assail  thy  bark;  thy 
nights  of  study ;  the  eager  youth  crowding 
about  you  in  that  far-off  college  ;  the  multi- 
tudes that  for  years  flowed  in  hither  with 
goings  like  the  sound  of  many  waters ;  the 
ideals  thou  didst  have  for  this  great  city,  for 
28 


A  Memorial  Address 

its  libraries,  its  galleries,  its  museums,  its 
homes,  its  people.  To-day  a  sense  of  debt  is 
upon  us.  For  the  great  love  we  bear  thee, 
we  pledge  ourselves  anew  to  truth,  toleration, 
and  charity,  to  liberty  and  fidelity,  to  con- 
viction, to  the  poor,  to  the  slave  and  the 
savage,  to  Jesus  Christ  thy  Saviour,  to  God 
thy  Father.  May  learning  like  thine  abide 
ever  in  our  libraries.  May  goodness  like 
thine  ever  lend  glory  to  all  our  chapels. 
May  thy  all-perceiving  reason,  thy  all-judg- 
ing reason,  hallow  our  council  chambers. 
May  eloquence  lend  glory  to  our  forum  and 
pulpit.  May  heaven  drop  thy  charmed  gifts 
upon  our  children  and  our  children's  children, 
until  all  are  Christians  and  patriots.  And 
we  will  give  thee  gratitude,  and  greet  thee 
beyond. 


29 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

Addresses  and  Papers 
American 


WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN,  I 

IN  this  month  of  February  come  the  birth- 
days of  our  Nation's  two  greatest  men. 
The  twelfth  and  twenty-second  days  of  this 
month  will  forever  take  this  time  of  wintry 
deadness  and  hand  it  over  to  all  the  tropical 
luxuriance  of  a  grateful  and  loving  memory, 
and  make  it  lie  in  the  confines  of  perpetual 
spring.  Flowers  that  winter  denies  these 
days,  the  Nation  will  supply  from  its  heart. 
Great  sky-watchers  those  two !  Such  as 
Christ  outlined.  They  illustrate  the  text l 
and  the  whole  character  of  the  Man  of 
Nazareth.  As  Jesus  said :  Do  not  suffer 
your  thoughts  and  feelings  to  pause  in  the 
evening  and  morning  colours  of  the  horizon 
made  by  your  little  hills  and  fields  and  skies, 
but  upon  those  spectacles  of  nature  permit 
your  souls  to  step  upward  until  you  shall 
mark  what  kind  of  a  day  ought  to  come  or 

1  Matthew  xvi.  3  :  Ye  can  discern  the  face  of  the  sky, 
but  can  ye  not  discern  the  signs  of  the  times  ? 

33 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

is  coming  to  the  land  which  the  Hebrews 
consecrated  in  their  prayers  and  holy  psalms, 
and  which  the  Roman  legions  have  brought 
to  such  desolation — so  these  two  modern 
minds  obey  the  Master,  and  rise  up  as  illu- 
mined pictures  of  the  old  lesson.  And  the 
one  standing  in  the  valley  of  the  Potomac, 
the  other  standing  in  the  sea-like  prairies  far 
away,  rested  not  in  the  scenes  of  nature  as 
painted  on  forest  and  hill,  grass  and  sky,  but 
passing  from  these  to  the  mightier  scenery 
of  man,  his  state,  his  church,  his  home,  his 
library,  they  gave  their  minds  and  powers  to 
a  mighty  work,  and  as  though  reading  all 
the  redness  and  wonder  and  beauty  of  the 
sky,  they  said  in  perfect  unison :  To-day  it 
will  be  stormy ;  to-morrow  it  will  be  fair  ! 

According  to  all  the  biographers  of  Jesus, 
He  was  a  great  admirer  of  the  means  granted 
to  man  for  forming  some  acquaintance  with 
his  world.  He  thought  the  eye  and  ear 
worth  cultivating  and  using.  If  any  man 
had  eyes  for  a  special  purpose  he  ought  to 
bring  them  into  daily  use.  If  any  man  had 
ears  he  ought  to  be  continually  listening,  for 
the  very  fact  of  the  eye  and  ear  was  a  proof 
ample  that  there  would  always  be  around 
man  something  to  be  seen  and  heard. 
34 


Washington  and  Lincoln,  I 

The  Darwinians  hold  the  theory  that  the 
first  forms  of  animal  life  did  not  possess  such 
senses  as  the  eye  and  the  ear ;  that  the  ex- 
ternal world  contained  so  much  light  and  so 
many  things  to  be  seen  and  contained  so 
many  things  to  be  heard  that  these  outside 
objects  in  their  effort  to  get  into  the  human 
brain  wore  away  at  last  the  coverings  of  the 
hidden  intellect,  and  made  such  openings  as 
those  which  admit  scenes  and  sounds.  Inas- 
much as  matter  preceded  the  mind,  it  was 
necessary  for  the  evolutionists  to  find  some 
method  by  which  light  could  make  an  eye 
and  sound  make  an  ear.  Thus  a  demand  for 
an  eye  created  the  supply  of  nerves  and 
lenses  and  eyelids. 

The  religious  mind  assumes  two  notions : 
that  a  God  made  a  wonderful  world,  and 
then  that  He  gave  man  those  senses  which 
may  enable  him  to  sustain  many  relations  to 
the  great  surrounding  wonder.  Happy  man, 
that  his  eye  can  all  lifelong  sweep  over  such 
a  horizon  of  land,  water  and  sky,  and  that 
his  ear  can  note  myriads  of  tones  from  the 
deep  sound  of  thunder  to  the  song  of  a  bird 
and  the  words  of  an  orator  or  a  friend  !  So 
amazing  are  these  two  powers  that  persons 
have  wondered  whether,  if  they  must  part 
35 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

with  one  of  them,  they  would  rather  be  deaf 
or  blind.  In  such  an  hour  of  indecision  each 
sense  seems  of  infinite  worth.  From  these 
two  forms  of  mental  power  came  the  old 
wonderment  that  there  should  be  any  person 
who  having  eyes  should  refuse  to  see  their 
world,  and  having  ears  should  refuse  to  hear 
it.  What  is  true  of  the  eye  is  true  of  the 
whole  mind  and  true  of  the  heart.  It  must 
be  thought  singular  that  a  creature  should 
possess  a  mind  without  using  it.  Its  use 
ought  to  be  as  natural  as  the  drinking  of 
water  when  man  is  thirsty,  or  the  eating  of 
food  when  he  is  hungry. 

It  ought  alone  to  follow  that  the  rational 
being  having  eyes  will  try  to  see  the  most 
impressive  spectacle,  and  having  ears  will 
attempt  to  hear  the  most  interesting  or 
thrilling  sounds.  Why  gaze  at  a  clod  when 
by  raising  the  eye  you  can  see  a  rainbow  or 
an  ocean  ?  Why  listen  to  a  rattling,  empty 
wagon  when  by  passing  into  a  capitol  one 
might  hear  a  Clay  or  a  Webster  ?  Standing 
amid  the  endless  prodigality  of  scenes  and 
sounds  man  must  be  an  eclectic.  He  must 
separate  the  great  from  the  small,  the  melody 
from  the  discord. 

Christ  illustrated  His  own  proposition.    He 

36 


Washington  and  Lincoln,  I 

came  into  Judaea  and  at  once  saw  it  and 
heard  it.  He  came  into  the  great  Eoman 
Empire — that  aggregate  of  a  hundred  millions 
of  souls,  that  vast  bulk  of  Eastern  and  West- 
ern literature,  politics,  and  religion — and  in 
a  few  years  He  saw  all  and  heard  all.  He 
saw  the  arrogance  of  things ;  the  degrada- 
tion of  the  people,  the  tears  of  women  and 
children,  the  errors  about  God  ;  He  heard  all 
the  uproar  of  the  race,  the  din  made  out  of 
the  laughter  of  the  wicked,  and  the  groans 
of  the  oppressed.  He  seemed  to  say  :  Why 
should  I  stand  here  and  not  see  the  mighty 
vision  and  not  hear  the  mingled  discord  and 
music  ? 

The  month  of  February  always  recalls 
two  men  who  having  eyes  saw  and  having 
ears  heard.  They  selected  the  greatest  scenes 
and  the  sweetest  music.  They  were  to  make 
a  short  visit  and  be  gone.  They  wisely 
looked  around  them  and  listened  for  what 
was  greatest  in  their  day.  They  selected 
enough  goodness  and  greatness  to  make 
their  birthdays  sacred  to  a  great  nation. 

When  these  two  men  .were  children  they 

began  to  see  and  hear  the  truths  and  needs 

of  their  nation.     It  is  not  explanation  enough 

to  say  that  great  ideas  were  already  "  in  the 

37 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

air."  We  know  that  all  great  minds  which 
had  ever  lived  had  spoken  some  word  in  be- 
half of  equal  rights  and  personal  liberty. 
From  Plato  to  Dante  the  eulogy  of  freedom 
had  been  perennial.  That  stream  of  truth 
had  indeed  been  reduced  by  many  a  desert, 
but  it  had  never  gone  dry.  It  was  seen  by 
Shakespeare  and  John  Milton.  It  had  be- 
come large  in  the  times  of  Pitt  and  Burke. 
But  few  were  the  minds  which  could  see 
clearly  this  noble  truth  of  our  race.  The 
lightning  had  played  upon  the  clouds  for 
thousands  of  years  before  a  Franklin  came 
to  look  up  with  eye  wide  open.  Antigone 
had  seen  her  blind  father  sink  down  under  a 
crash  of  thunder;  Virgil  had  seen  the  sky 
all  ablaze  with  this  rapid  fire.  Thus  for  ages 
had  the  thunder-storms  flashed  and  roared 
over  the  nations.  At  last  came  one  with  a 
series  of  questions  to  be  asked  of  the  clouds 
and  their  dazzling  light.  It  is  not  enough 
that  freedom  was  in  the  air.  We  must  love 
the  men  who  caught  the  fugitive  and  gave 
it  to  a  continent. 

When  we  think  about  such  men  as  these 
two  February  names,  we  must  dismiss  the 
words  "  fate  "  and  "  destiny  "  and  give  them 
the  credit  of  that  choice  which  made  them 

38 


Washington  and  Lincoln,  I 

so  great.  They  deliberately  chose  to  see  and 
hear  their  country.  It  is  a  sad  universe  if 
hell  or  heaven  is  assigned  to  man  by  blind 
fate.  If  the  Emperor  Nero  was  on  a  moral 
level  with  St.  John  and  St.  Paul,  then  is  our 
world  a  failure.  Man  is  then  without  praise 
or  blame.  But  if  the  mind  can  select  a  noble 
form  of  being  and  conduct,  then  the  world 
becomes  the  arena  of  patriots  and  saints  and 
is  the  vestibule  of  a  possible  paradise. 

In  such  a  universe  of  a  God  and  a  divine 
choice  society  must  run  to  the  Washingtons 
and  Lincolns,  and  throw  at  their  feet  the 
wreaths  befitting  their  lives.  This  splen- 
dour is  all  their  own.  We  cannot  repair 
to  the  banks  of  the  Potomac  or  to  the  wilds 
of  Kentucky  to  take  anything  away.  We 
must  go  thither  only  to  thank  the  two  mor- 
tals for  seeing  and  hearing  the  passing  cen- 
turies. These  two  men  were  at  liberty  to 
live  worthless  or  injurious  lives.  Washing- 
ton was  at  liberty  to  become  a  Benedict 
Arnold;  Mr.  Lincoln  was  at  liberty  to  be- 
come a  slave-driver  or  a  common  idler.  We 
must  honour  the  two  men  for  becoming  the 
friends  of  their  race. 

These  two  men,  taken  together,  compose  a 
most  complete  lesson  of  life.  The  latter 
39 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

lesson  came  to  supplement  the  defects  of  the 
former.  Washington  was  the  child  of  good 
fortune,  Lincoln  the  child  of  adversity  ;  and 
yet  they  came  to  one  greatness,  as  if  to  teach 
our  generation  that  no  wealth  or  poverty 
need  separate  the  heart  from,  great  principles. 
Washington  had  everything,  Lincoln  noth- 
ing. From  these  facts  it  is  to  be  inferred 
that  the  good  mind  may  move  in  its  own 
name.  If  it  cannot  ride  in  a  chariot  it  can 
go  on  foot. 

As  wealth  was  measured  a  hundred  years 
ago  the  young  Washington  was  rich  in 
money.  He  was  surrounded  by  scholars. 
All  those  first  families  of  Virginia  loved  a 
kind  of  moral  and  literary  greatness.  This 
high  style  was  perhaps  imported  by  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh  himself  who  was  a  highly 
educated  adventurer,  anxious  to  be  in  perfect 
accord  with  the  age  of  Queen  Elizabeth. 
After  Ealeigh,  a  large  number  of  families 
brought  to  Virginia  what  might  be  called 
the  intellectual  style.  In  our  day  the  old 
mental  scene  seems  full  of  stiffness  and 
pomposity,  but  by  the  time  young  Wash- 
ington came  upon  the  stage  the  old  vanity 
had  reached  nearer  to  the  level  of  natural- 
ness ;  yet  could  the  picture  be  compared  with 
40 


Washington  and  Lincoln,  I 

the  portrait  of  our  day  it  would  seem  a  group 
of  wooden  men  and  women  moved  by  ma- 
chinery. All  talked  in  a  calm,  rhetorical 
style.  All  table  talk  was  carried  on  in  the 
language  of  oratory.  Love  letters  were 
composed  in  the  measured  sentences  of  the 
philosophers.  The  oldest  brother  of  Wash- 
ington was  sent  to  Oxford  to  be  educated  be- 
cause there  was  in  the  Colonies  no  school 
that  was  worthy  of  the  presence  and  tuition 
fees  of  such  a  noble  Virginian.  After  the 
return  of  this  Lawrence,  George,  a  mere  lad, 
lived  in  the  presence  of  an  Oxford  graduate, 
and  must  have  absorbed  a  large  quantity  of 
the  wisdom  and  culture  of  the  best  town  of 
old  England.  Thus  surrounded  by  mental 
and  moral  influence,  George  became  quite  a 
student  of  conduct,  and  when  he  was  enter- 
ing upon  the  world  of  fashion  and  society  at 
large  he  wrote  out  a  set  of  rules  which  should 
regulate  him  in  his  trip  through  the  multitude 
of  men  and  women.  His  father,  his  mother, 
his  brother,  his  uncles,  his  neighbours  were 
all  of  one  type  and  that  type  marked  by 
morality,  politeness  and  a  certain  colossal 
pride. 

Contrast  with  such  a  boyhood  the  early 
years  of  Abraham  Lincoln.     It  would  pain 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

our  hearts  should  we  attempt  to  recall  all 
the  particulars  of  that  life  in  Kentucky, 
Indiana  and  Illinois.  As  if  one  would  not 
suffice,  that  youth  tasted  the  rudeness  of 
three  wild  States.  When  the  poverty  of 
Kentucky  became  intolerable  the  family 
made  a  long,  exhaustive  journey  to  the  pov- 
erty of  Indiana ;  and  when  the  soul  wearied 
of  that  bitterness  the  family  loaded  all  things 
into  an  ox-wagon  and  moved  through  long 
and  deep  mud  to  find  the  extremest  hardship 
of  early  Illinois.  The  moving  Lincoln  family 
recalls  the  verses  of  Isaac  Watts  about  the 
sick  man  who  in  pain  often  turned  over  in 
his  sick  bed,  but  at  each  turn  took  his  dis- 
ease over  with  him. 

Kecall  the  young  Washington  with  his 
bright  knee-buckles ;  with  his  great  Oxford 
brother  by  his  side  ;  the  air  around  them  full 
of  splendour,  of  culture  and  ambition  :  recall 
the  young  Lincoln  following  with  bare  feet 
a  migrating  ox-cart,  which  was  simply  rolling 
along  from  the  deep  mud  of  Indiana  to  the 
same  kind  of  mud  further  West. 

The  picture  of  Lincoln   would  be  more 

tolerable  if  the  poverty  had  attended  the 

youth  only  in  his  minority,  but  it  refused  to 

leave  the  kind-hearted  man  and  assailed  him 

42 


Washington  and  Lincoln,  I 

without  mercy  for  almost  a  half  centuiy. 
His  day  was  darkened  not  only  by  poverty 
but  by  other  clouds. 

Of  that  stay  of  fifty-seven  years  upon 
earth  only  the  last  ten  were  touched  with 
any  of  the  earth's  kindness  and  beauty.  It 
is  no  wonder  Mr.  Lincoln  carried  a  sad  face, 
for  it  is  known  that  the  face  is  shaped  by 
the  heart.  As  thorns  and  thistles  do  not 
produce  great  bunches  of  grapes,  so  long 
years  of  cloud  cannot  throw  much  sunshine 
on  the  cheek  and  forehead.  The  cruel  murder 
of  April  14,  1865,  completed  the  long  chain 
of  grief.  The  clouds  opened  once  and  let 
fall  a  little  sunshine  upon  the  man's  soul, 
but  after  those  few  beams  came  a  swift  dark- 
ness. In  sorrow  the  last  hour  was  in  har- 
mony with  the  first.  The  tune  of  his  spirit 
ended  on  the  sad  note  with  which  it  began. 
Of  all  great  names  in  the  modern  roll-call 
that  of  Abraham  Lincoln  is  fullest  of  pathos. 
Great  but  sorrowful,  smiling  through  tears, 
he  was  murdered  in  his  only  day  of  a  per- 
sonal blessedness. 

Our  Nation  ought  to  be  glad  that  it  con- 
tains these  two  forms  of  biography.  Passing 
down  the  times  together  they  sweep  the 
whole  field  of  American  life  and  assure  all 
43 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

our  youth  that  neither  riches  nor  poverty 
must  interfere  with  the  race  of  the  soul 
towards  success.  If  our  land  possessed  only 
the  memory  of  the  man  from  Illinois  it 
might  feel  that  no  great  man  can  ever  come 
except  by  the  way  of  bare  feet  and  a  maul- 
ing of  rails.  With  the  daily  spread  and  ad- 
vance of  riches,  hope  of  future  great  men 
might  decline  and  fade.  Our  youth  would 
seem  too  happy  in  poverty  ever  to  become 
great  in  mind.  What  a  poor  world  this 
would  be  if  only  those  who  are  barefooted 
and  bareheaded  might  run  along  the  paths 
of  knowledge  and  fame !  And  what  a  poor 
world  it  would  be  if  those  who  are  bare- 
footed were  forbidden  to  walk  or  run  in 
those  flowery  roads !  But  what  a  good 
world  it  is,  if  it  looks  at  only  the  faces  of 
those  who  run  and  never  cares  whether  the 
feet  are  unclad  or  are  bright  with  slippers  of 
pure  gold ! 

The  crowns  of  the  mental  empire  are  not 
in  waiting  for  either  riches  or  poverty.  Plato 
was  rich,  Socrates  poor,  but  philosophy  could 
not  see  these  distinctions ;  she  ran  joyfully 
to  both.  Parrhasius  dressed  in  purple  and 
gold,  Epictetus  in  the  raiment  of  a  slave ; 
but  art  and  wisdom  none  the  less  ran  to 
44 


Washington  and  Lincoln,  I 

both  these  gifted  people  of  the  far  past.  To 
our  age  came  Washington  and  Lincoln  to 
teach  our  youth  that  greatness  and  useful- 
ness care  nothing  for  wealth  or  poverty. 
They  study  only  the  face,  the  heart.  If  the 
eye  sees,  nature  fills  it  with  great  scenes ;  if 
the  ear  hears,  nature  fills  it  with  melody. 

Aurelius  was  a  Roman  Emperor,  ^Esop  a 
beggar,  but  the  sky  did  not  care ;  it  con- 
ferred upon  both  the  same  immortality.  The 
one  essential  thing  is  that  the  heart  in  youth 
shall  cry  out,  "  I  see  the  world  ;  I  hear  it ! " 
These  two  American  children  met  this  de- 
mand, and  from  standpoints  more  than  fifty 
years  apart  they  read  deeply  the  lesson 
spread  before  them  by  their  country.  The 
one  looked  and  saw  a  foreign  throne  seeking 
to  rule  and  subjugate  the  New  World  and 
prevent  the  spread  of  freedom ;  the  other 
looked  and  saw  slavery  working  its  way 
westward,  and  threatening  to  make  negro 
bondage  the  watchword  of  the  Nation . 
These  young  eyes  opened  wide,  never  again 
to  be  closed  until  by  the  hand  of  death. 
Although  the  death-beds  were  separated  by 
two  generations,  each  patriot  died  amid  the 
shouts  of  a  new,  triumphant  liberty.  The 
Nation  on  its  memorial  days  looks  back  and 
45 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

sees  two  young  men  rising  up  out  of  their 
tumultuous  times.  It  forgets  the  abundant 
stores  of  the  one,  the  wretched  poverty  of 
the  other,  and  sees  only  the  two  faces,  radi- 
ant with  one  intelligence  and  one  love. 
Times  and  customs  have  undergone  great 
changes  since  these  two  great  Americans 
died.  Wealth  has  come  and  political  tumult 
has  passed  away.  The  peace  and  unity 
which  the  heroes  made  brought  wealth  to 
the  people  and  took  away  that  old  struggle 
over  liberty  which  had  once  made  such  a 
company  of  great  men.  Industry,  inventions, 
great  discoveries,  land  abundant  and  rich, 
combined  to  exalt  all  the  little  pleasures  which 
money  can  purchase,  and  to  conceal  many  a 
great  form  of  mental  service  and  destiny. 

The  value  of  peace  depends  upon  what 
conies  after  it.  When  peace  is  followed  by 
the  pursuit  of  money  and  pleasure  then  the 
biographer  must  find  his  great  subjects  in  the 
days  of  war ;  but  when  war  is  followed  by 
public  education  and  public  wisdom,  then 
the  historian  calls  those  years  a  golden  age, 
and  war  is  left  far  behind  as  the  thunder- 
storm at  night  is  left  behind  by  the  spark- 
ling morning  which  follows  it  in  high  June ! 
Our  day  is  depending  wholly  upon  that  young 


Washington  and  Lincoln,  I 

generation  which  is  now  following  the  dead 
aiid  which  has  the  opportunity  in  full  to 
transform  iron  into  gold.  What  avail  the 
ox-teams  which  can  break  up  the  wild  prairie 
unless  men  are  to  follow  and  sow  good  wheat 
and  women  are  to  follow  and  plant  flowers  ? 
After  the  grave  of  the  Washingtons  new 
principles  must  be  found.  New  eyes  must 
see  new  happiness.  The  eye  must  again  see 
its  world.  Its  vision  must  not  be  clouded  by 
either  poverty  or  riches.  If  the  young  mind 
cannot  see  great  visions  the  world  will  at 
last  say  to  it :  Alas  that  youth  was  born 
blind ! 

It  is  often  lamented  by  the  churchmen 
that  Washington  and  Lincoln  possessed  little 
religion  except  that  found  in  the  word 
"God."  All  that  can  here  be  affirmed  is 
that  what  the  religion  of  those  two  men 
lacked  in  theological  details  it  made  up  in 
greatness.  Their  minds  were  born  with  a 
love  of  great  principles.  Washington  loved 
and  exalted  each  great  principle.  He  was 
compelled  by  his  nature  to  select  from  Chris- 
tianity its  central  ideas.  This  tendency  was 
intensified  by  the  local  friendship  for  France. 
France  was  battling  against  a  vast  bundle  of 
false,  Christian  particulars.  The  Colonies  so 
47 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

hated  England  and  so  admired  France  that 
most  of  our  early  statesmen  reduced  Chris- 
tianity to  that  French  rationalism  which  was 
quite  well  satisfied  with  the  doctrine  of  a 
Creator.  A  superstitious  Christianity  was 
falling  to  pieces,  and  the  new  orthodoxy 
had  not  yet  come.  Many  of  these  states- 
men, when  they  took  any  steps  at  all  in  the 
path  of  religion,  walked  with  God  alone. 

Mr.  Lincoln  also  came  seeking  principles. 
His  mind  could  see  greatness  at  a  glance. 
In  the  wilds  of  Kentucky  and  Indiana  he 
had  seen  at  revivals  young  men  and  young 
women  preparing  to  shout.  He  had  seen  the 
deacons  and  elders  removing  the  coat  and 
extra  clothing  from  the  young  man,  and  the 
mothers  arranging  some  young  girls  that 
these  converts  might  for  an  hour  or  two 
move  the  upper  and  lower  worlds  with  their 
motions  and  shoutings.  The  present  ration- 
alized, orthodox  church  had  not  come.  It 
was  not  in  sight.  The  Presbyterians  saw 
many  of  their  converts  fall  in  a  trance  ;  the 
Methodists  shouted,  and  depended  upon  what 
they  called  "the  power."  There  were  no 
kind  words  for  those  rational  minds  which 
asked  for  a  simple  religion  of  worship  and 
righteousness.  The  Church  mistook  reason 


Washington  and  Lincoln,  I 

for  infidelity  and  hostility.  Mighty  changes 
have  come  since  those  two  graves  were 
made. 

There  are  few  instances  in  which  a  mind 
great  enough  to  reach  great  principles  in 
politics  has  been  satisfied  with  a  fanatical 
religion.  The  Cavour  who  emancipated 
Italy  became  broad  in  religion  when  he  be- 
came great  in  politics.  The  Castelar  who  fed 
out  great  truths  to  Spain  reached  the  same 
greatness  of  faith.  It  must  not  be  asked  for 
Washington  and  Lincoln  that  having  reached 
greatness  in  political  principles  they  should 
have  loved  littleness  in  piety.  It  is  probable 
that  living  in  our  day  these  two  men  would 
have  found  peace  in  that  new  Christianity 
which  is  passing  along  in  so  much  of  truth 
and  beauty.  Neither  of  these  eminent  men 
possessed  enough  of  poetry  to  have  made 
him  worship  like  a  Newman  or  a  St.  John  ; 
but  in  our  day  their  estimate  of  God  would 
have  passed  as  being  an  adequate  faith  for  a 
statesman.  Lincoln  possessed  something  of 
the  poetic  sentiment,  but  what  of  this  deli- 
cacy lay  in  either  soul  was  trampled  to  death 
under  the  horses  and  chariots  of  war.  When 
Mars  reaches  out  his  bloody  hand  the  Muses 
sit  down  and  weep.  The  daughters  of  Zion 
49 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

hang  up  their  harps,  and  refuse  to  sing  in  a 
bloody  land. 

February  12th  will  recall  the  most  illus- 
trious name  in  history,  but  it  will  awaken 
thought  in  vain  unless  it  shall  induce  the 
youth  to  march  through  the  past  into  the 
present  and  through  the  present  up  to  the 
future.  Memory  is  most  useful  when  it 
empties  its  riches  into  the  urns  of  hope.  The 
past  must  be  the  musician  for  the  morrow. 
Washington  saw  great  principles  and  out  of 
them  he  created  the  happiness  of  millions. 
The  war  did  not  create  him,  for  he  was 
selecting  principles  before  war  came.  Be- 
fore the  seven  years  of  battle  he  had  been 
extracting  power  from  forty  years  of  com- 
mon life.  The  clouds  of  war  did  not  make 
his  soul's  rainbow,  they  only  revealed  it. 
Our  eyes  are  so  poor  and  weak  that  we 
cannot  see  the  seven  colours  of  the  mind  un- 
less there  is  a  black  cloud  behind  them. 
Washington  made  his  character  out  of  the 
world's  common  sunshine ;  he  used  it  in  the 
storm. 

*  Around  the  feet  of  this  new  generation 
lies  to-day  a  world  of  mental  and  moral  prin- 
ciples.    The  Church  is  coming  upon  them, 
the    State   is    finding  them  like   gold-dust 
50 


Washington  and  Lincoln,  I 

hidden  in  the  earth.  As  men  in  the  classic 
lands  are  flinging  aside  dust  and  ashes,  and 
are  exhuming  temples,  statues,  and  jewels, 
so  men  of  mind  are  passing  below  the  dust 
of  the  centuries  and  are  lifting  up  into  the 
air  and  light  truths  of  a  divine  beauty.  So 
vast  are  these  hidden  stores  of  thought  that 
we  must  conclude  both  politics  and  Chris- 
tianity to  be  only  in  the  early  morning  of 
their  career. 

But  we  have  come  to  a  new  crisis.  It  is 
not  to  be  inquired  now  what  will  the  deepest 
poverty  do?  What  salvation  will  the  rail- 
splitter  bring?  What  genius  will  be  born 
to  us  out  of  Kentucky  dust  ?  We  know  the 
kindness  of  earth  in  this  one  direction.  A 
more  pensive  inquiry  is  found  in  the  wonder- 
ment what  salvation  and  blessings  the  rich 
children  are  about  to  bring.  Are  their  es- 
tates destined  like  those  of  young  Washing- 
ton to  turn  into  moral  and  intellectual  splen- 
dour ? 

In  high  agriculture  the  fields  must  not  al- 
ways grow  one  kind  of  grass  or  grain.  The 
soul  dies  under  such  a  tax  upon  one  kind  of 
its  virtues.  Thus  society  must  renew  its  life 
and  inspiration  and  when  the  fathers  have 
amassed  gold,  the  children  should  not  slay 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

the  rich  land  which  produced  the  harvest 
but  they  should  change  the  growing  and 
make  the  next  summer  time  blend  with  the 
fruits  and  grains  of  every  art,  every  virtue, 
every  hope. 

Under  such  magical  changes  the  plains  of 
humanity  cannot  become  a  desert ;  like  the 
valley  of  the  Nile,  they  will  become  richer 
at  each  overflow  of  the  advancing  human 
race. 

The  earth's  possibilities  are  so  great  that 
it  will  tax  the  genius  of  both  poverty  and 
wealth  to  disclose  them.  Eminent  women 
are  lamenting  that  woman's  world  will  seem 
so  small  in  any  world-wide  display  of  works 
and  talents.  But  how  could  it  be  infinite  ? 
She  was  a  powerless  slave  until  yesterday. 
Over  the  gateway  of  her  temple  she  ought 
to  write  the  words:  "The  Works  of  One 
Day  of  Liberty."  But  man  has  a  long,  long 
history,  over  most  of  which  he  ought  to  sit 
down  and  weep.  He  has  for  the  most  part 
chosen  to  see  what  was  least  glorious.  It  is 
to  be  hoped  that  he  is  penitential  at  least ; 
and  that  millions  of  youths  are  in  mind 
and  soul  following  those  faces  which,  human 
in  America  and  other  lands  and  divine  in 
Judaea,  are  looking  up,  and  with  the  eye  see- 
52 


Washington  and  Lincoln,  I 

ing  all  the  great  spectacles  of  God  and  man, 
and  with  the  ear  hearing  all  the  hymns  of 
religion  and  all  the  great  melodies  and 
symphonies  of  human  life. 


53 


II 

WASHINGTON  AND  LINCOLN,  II 

WHILE  our  Nation  grows  older  and 
adds  to  its  moral  worth  as  rapidly 
as  to  its  passing  years,  its  memorial  days 
will  become  more  significant,  and  no  states- 
man or  editor  or  clergyman  will  pass  uncon- 
sciously such  graves  as  those  of  Washington 
and  Lincoln.  The  Greeks  and  Latins  cele- 
brated the  death-days  of  their  great  men 
because  greatness  did  not  reach  its  climax 
at  the  cradle,  but  nearer  the  tomb.  Our 
country,  in  regarding  the  birthdays  of  its 
distinguished  sons,  has  in  heart  the  same 
feelings  which  the  classics  cherished,  and 
uses  the  joy  and  beauty  of  the  cradle  only 
as  an  emblem  of  the  subsequent  splendour 
of  life.  Any  day  taken  from  that  career 
which  ended  in  1799 — such  as  the  day  in 
October  when  Cornwallis  surrendered  to 
Washington — would  answer  as  well  as  the 
day  in  February  for  a  trumpet-call  to  awaken 
an  unequalled  memory.  Be  the  hour  that 
54 


Washington  and  Lincoln,  II 

of  cradle  or  inauguration  or  farewell  address 
or  grave,  it  recalls  the  one  great  historic 
fact — the  man. 

The  American  habit  of  taking  up  the 
birthday  as  an  emblem  of  the  whole  page 
or  volume  in  history  is  well,  for  there  the 
first  smile  of  life  is  seen  and  the  cradle  is 
less  sad  than  the  sepulchre.  This  smallest 
month  in  the  year  is  ornamented  by  the  two 
greatest  birthdays  recorded  upon  our  con- 
tinent— those  of  Washington  and  Lincoln. 
February  12th  will  by  degrees  become  the 
associate  in  love  and  memory  of  Febru- 
ary 22d,  and  both  will  advance  in  honour 
with  the  advance  of  public  patriotism  and 
culture. 

Only  ten  years  lay  between  the  death  of 
"Washington  and  the  birth  of  Abraham  Lin- 
coln. In  that  little  interregnum  the  people 
ruled  just  as  they  do  now  when  both  kings 
have  long  been  absent  from  the  land  they 
loved.  But  we  should  all  see  to  it  that  the 
absence  is  only  that  of  the  material  form, 
not  that  of  the  soul.  The  bookmaker,  the 
journalist,  the  politician,  the  preacher,  the 
poet,  and  the  painter  should  carry  onward 
the  spirit  of  these  men  and  make  them  to  be 
the  same  moral  forces  in  the  morrow  they 
55 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

were  in  the  yesterday.  What  the  old  saints 
are  to  Christianity  these  two  patriots  are 
to  our  country.  Take  from  beneath  oar 
churches  the  Christ  and  the  Saints  Paul 
and  John,  and  although  each  truth  of  a 
natural  religion  would  remain,  what  a  cold- 
ness would  be  felt  in  the  walls !  How  hearts 
would  freeze  at  the  altars !  So  our  Nation 
does  not  repose  upon  only  abstract  ideas,  but 
also  upon  the  warm  hearts  which  once  beat 
along  the  Potomac  and  in  the  prairies  of 
Illinois. 

Society  is  moved,  but  also  held  by  its 
attachments,  and  doubly  fortunate  and  suc- 
cessful is  it  when  its  attachments  bind  it 
to  the  best  truths.  Men  love  their  country, 
right  or  wrong ;  but  fortunate  is  our  Nation 
in  that  its  great  heroic  characters  were  in 
perfect  harmony  with  the  most  refined  light, 
and  thus  truth  and  sentiment  are  in  full 
partnership.  There  have  been  states  which 
have  had  to  apologize  for  the  defects  of 
their  heroes — their  Caesars  or  Napoleons  or 
Georges— their  emperors  or  queens  or  czars ; 
but  fortunate  was  this  February  in  those 
two  cradles  over  which  attachment  and  phi- 
losophy join  in  unusual  concord.  Love  sees 
nothing  that  need  be  forgiven.  Patriotism 

56 


Washington  and  Lincoln,  II 

and  reason  meet  over  these  birthdays  and, 
willing  to  love  country,  right  and  wrong, 
men  may  love  it  all  the  more  in  this  unsullied 
memory  of  right. 

Next  to  the  saints  of  religion  must  be 
ranked  in  all  our  minds  these  saints  of  our 
country;  because  our  Nation  asks  not  for 
political  theory  only,  but  for  a  worship,  a 
friendship  that  can  conquer  and  hope  like  the 
faith  of  the  Christians.  When  an  enemy 
rises  up  against  this  Republic  it  must  always 
find  not  a  mere  soulless  corporation,  but  a 
passion,  a  sentiment  which  will  pluck  up  trees 
by  the  root  and  toss  mountains  into  the  sea. 
A  mother  defends  her  child  not  only  because 
of  right  and  principle,  but  also  because  of 
her  affection.  Thus  great,  pure  leaders,  like 
those  of  historic  memory,  enlarge  political 
philosophy  into  devotion.  It  helped  our 
Nation  in  its  dark  days  of  1776  and  1861 
that  its  two  leaders  were  so  worthy  of  ad- 
miration. The  soldiers  of  Valley  Forge  saw 
in  their  general  a  lofty  character  for  whom 
they  could  endure  privations,  in  whom  they 
could  trust.  When  they  were  cold  and 
hungry  and  homesick  they  were  still  in- 
spired by  the  merit  of  their  commander. 
He  had  separated  himself  from  his  wealth 
57 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

and  its  peace  to  be  a  soldier  against  the 
greatest  power  upon  earth ;  the  troops  saw  of 
that  moral  worth  and  were  cheered  by  the 
vision  when  all  other  scenes  were  darkened. 
When  Baron  Steuben,  an  ardent  volunteer 
from  the  German  army,  saw  the  troops  at 
Yalley  Forge,  their  wants  of  all  the  com- 
forts of  life,  he  wondered  what  held  the 
soldiers  so  firmly  to  their  post  of  duty.  It 
was  a  moral  power  that  held  them — the 
hope  of  a  free  nation  and  faith  in  their 
chieftain.  In  Philadelphia  the  British  army, 
from  the  highest  to  the  humblest,  was  spend- 
ing in  carousal  the  winter  months  which  the 
colonial  troops  were  spending  in  all  forms 
of  discomfort.  One  British  officer  kept  a 
gambling  house  in  which  the  common  sol- 
diers were  robbed  of  their  gold.  Thus  was 
the  British  army  a  military  machine,  while 
an  American  army  was  a  band  of  men,  with 
a  soul  in  it — an  army  of  6,000  friends  of 
freedom  and.  of  "Washington.  "Washington's 
dining-room  of  logs,  a  banqueting  hall  that 
could  be  duplicated  for  fifty  dollars,  where 
there  was  simple  food  and  no  carousal,  be- 
came an  emblem  of  the  kind  of  leader  the 
rank  and  file  was  trusting  and  following. 
This  scene  was  repeated  in  the  war  of  seces- 
58 


Washington  and  Lincoln,  II 

sion.  Whatever  the  hardships  of  the  soldiers 
in  that  long  and  awful  war,  the  troops  could 
always  think  of  Abraham  Lincoln  as  being 
in  full  sympathy  with  them  as  knowing  what 
labour  and  privation  were,  and  as  being  will- 
ing to  die,  if  need  be,  for  the  welfare  of  the 
country.  The  fame  of  other  men  arose  and 
fell,  but  Mr.  Lincoln's  shone  with  a  steady 
beam,  however  dark  the  night.  All  the 
simplicity  and  honesty  of  his  character,  the 
hardships  of  his  early  life,  added  to  the  im- 
pressiveness  of  his  name.  His  history  made 
him  the  basis  of  songs  and  of  a  deep  admira- 
tion. 

It  is  wonderful  that  two  such  men,  so  simi- 
lar, so  grand  in  intellect  and  morals,  came  to 
our  Nation  in  its  hour  of  greatest  need.  The 
need  did  not  create  them ;  it  simply  found 
them.  George  Washington  was  just  as  hon- 
est and  noble  when  he  was  twenty,  and 
twenty  years  before  the  Independence,  as  he 
was  in  the  Revolution.  When  discontent 
about  rank  and  pay  sprang  up  in  the  Indian 
war,  Major  Washington,  then  twenty -two, 
said  he  would  as  soon  serve  as  a  private  as 
serve  as  an  officer,  and  for  small  pay  as  for 
large  pay ;  that  he  would  remain  with  his 
regiment  on  the  Ohio  under  any  possible  ar- 
59 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

rangement.     Thus  the  subsequent  Eevolution 
did  not  make  Washington ;  it  found  him. 

Thus  came  Abraham  Lincoln  into  our 
country,  not  created  by  the  war  of  the  re- 
bellion, but  created  previously  in  the  mys- 
terious laboratory  of  nature.  He  was  simple 
in  life,  clear  in  his  views  of  right  and  duty, 
firm  in  his  will,  long  before  the  flag  of  war 
was  unfurled.  Circumstances  ought  to  have 
made  a  hero  and  patriot  out  of  James  Bu- 
chanan, but  they  were  unequal  to  the  large 
task ;  they  ought  to  have  fashioned  a  leader 
out  of  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  but  they  could 
not  teach  him  the  whole  of  the  right  as  to 
Territories  where  no  slave  had  ever  been. 
Circumstances  did  not  fit  Wendell  Phillips 
nor  Mr.  Garrison  for  the  highest  office,  for 
neither  of  them  could  have  carried  that  heart 
of  justice  towards  the  South  which  the  times 
required.  Many  men  came  near  being 
worthy,  but  some  valuable  element  seemed 
wanting  until  this  singular  character  was  led 
up  out  of  the  high  grass  of  Illinois.  He  was 
a  marvellous  combination  of  intellectual 
power  and  of  the  sentiment  of  right.  An 
English  reporter  who  had  come  to  this  coun- 
try expressly  to  ridicule  Mr.  Lincoln  for  an 
English  paper  (the  London  Punch),  after  the 
60 


Washington  and  Lincoln,  II 

President's  martyrdom  confessed  his  poor  es- 
timate of  the  Western  woodsman : 

"  My  shallow  judgment  I  had  learned  to  rue, 
Noting  how  to  occasion's  height  he  rose  ; 
How  this  quaint  wit  made  home-truth  seem  more  true, 
How,  iron-like,  his  temper  grew  by  blows  ; 

"  How  humble,  yet  how  hopeful,  he  could  be  ; 
How,  in  good  fortune  and  in  all,  the  same ; 
Not  bitter  in  success,  nor  boastful  he, 
Thirsty  for  gold,  nor  feverish  for  fame. 

"  He  went  about  his  work — such  work  as  few 

Ever  had  laid  on  head  and  heart  and  hand — 
As  one  who  knows,  where  there's  a  task  to  do, 
Man's  honest  will  must  heaven's  good  grace  com- 
mand; 

*'  The  words  of  mercy  were  upon  his  lips, 

Forgiveness  in  his  heart  and  on  his  pen, 
When  this  vile  murderer  brought  swift  eclipse 
To  thoughts  of  peace  on  earth,  good  will  to  men. 

"  The  Old  World  and  the  New,  from  sea  to  sea 

Utter  one  voice  of  sympathy  and  shame. 
Sore  heart,  so  stopped  when  it  at  last  beat  high  ! 
Sad  life,  cut  short  just  as  its  triumph  came  !  " 

Great  memory  of  our  country,  that  in  ten 
years  after  the  death  of  Washington,  this 
child  was  opening  its  eyes  upon  a  continent 
that  was  to  make  him  a  part  of  its  second 
great  drama ! 

61 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

So  far  is  our  day  from  the  time  of  Wash- 
ington, that  many  details  have  fallen  out  of 
the  picture,  and  there  remains  the  form  with- 
out the  life.  To  the  new  generation  that 
man,  once  called  the  "  Saviour  of  His  Coun- 
try "  and  the  "  Father  of  His  Country,"  has 
become  as  dead  and  cold  as  a  marble  statue 
of  some  ancient  Greek  or  Eoman.  The  calm 
forehead  and  noble  face  remain,  but  that  hu- 
man nature — which  still  comes  to  us  when 
the  name  of  Lincoln  is  pronounced — has  fallen 
away  from  Washington.  But  this  is  not 
time's  fault,  it  is  the  fault  of  the  new  genera- 
tion :  for  God  has  made  the  mind  such  that 
it  can  recall  past  years  and  fill  itself  with 
living  pictures.  Nature  offers  no  reward  to 
mental  indolence.  It  hates  an  idler  in  any 
field.  If  the  passion  for  property  has  injured 
all  love  of  literature  and  if  so  far  as  literary 
taste  remains  it  prefers  a  foolish  novel  to  the 
greatest  pages  of  history,  certainly  in  such 
an  age  a  few  years  will  blot  out  scenes  the 
most  wonderful  and  events  the  most  thrill- 
ing. The  law  of  nature  is  that  to  the  indus- 
trious mind  pursuing  the  best  paths,  the  past 
shall  be  made  almost  as  vivid  as  the  present. 
Not  eighteen  hundred  years  ago  can  destroy 
the  picture  of  the  living  Jesus ;  a  hundred 
62 


Washington  and  Lincoln,  II 

years  cannot  turn  into  dead  rock  the  Fathers 
of  the  Nation. 

Man  is  the  only  animal  to  which  nature 
has  granted  the  power  of  seeing  the  past. 
The  brute  lives  by  the  day;  but  each  edu- 
cated soul  carries  hundreds  of  years  in  the 
heart.  Thus  life  is  endeared,  and  the  youth 
of  twenty  may  seem  to  be  living  in  a  day 
thirty  centuries  in  length.  But  all  this  land- 
scape depends  for  its  breadth  and  beauty 
upon  the  mind's  activity.  When  one  comes 
to  the  Mississippi  one  may  see  only  a  muddy 
stream,  or  he  can  behold  that  stream  with 
De  Soto  at  its  mouth  and  red  men  on  its 
banks  three  hundred  years  ago ;  and  when 
the  same  heart  comes  to  the  Potomac  it  may 
see  only  the  fishing-boys  and  the  negroes 
idle  in  the  sun,  or  it  may  see  Washington 
there  in  those  days  whose  sun  went  down  a 
hundred  years  before  the  sun  of  this  sacred 
morning  came.  Man's  present  is  only  an 
hour  or  two,  but  when  his  mind  is  awakened 
the  past  and  future  are  melted  into  the  pres- 
ent and  make  each  passing  hour  great  in  all 
its  associations  and  hopes. 

Not  all  minds  may  indeed  possess  the  same 
power  of  recalling  the  past,  but  the  common 
mental  attributes  are  quite  uniformly  distrib- 
63 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

uted,  and  few  are  the  young  persons  of  to- 
day who  could  not,  if  so  they  wished,  recall 
the  bygone  times  until  they  could  hear  the 
leaves  rustle,  in  the  autumn,  under  the  foot 
of  George  Washington,  could  hear  the  axe  of 
young  Lincoln  sounding  afar  in  the  lonely 
woods,  could  even  see  Jesus  of  Nazareth  in 
His  cottage  in  the  Galilean  hills  or  in  the 
streets  of  Jerusalem.  God  made  the  soul  too 
great  to  lie  poised  upon  the  present  moment. 
It  should  rest  upon  the  past  and  the  future. 
But  if  the  mind  possesses  no  activity,  or  if 
its  activity  is  exhausted  upon  transient  and 
worthless  literature,  the  past  falls  out  of  life 
and  all  the  grand  ones  from  the  Divine  Christ 
to  the  human  Washington  and  Lincoln  are 
only  names  without  any  meaning.  Often  are 
they  made  the  subjects  of  ridicule  or  wit  by 
hearts  that  have  never  measured  the  great- 
ness of  the  lives  for  which  the  names  stand. 
The  philosophy  of  that  revival  of  interest  in 
the  birthdays  of  our  two  greatest  men  is  the 
hope  that  the  new  generation  may  grasp  the 
past  of  the  Nation  and  may  pass  from  igno- 
rance to  knowledge  and  from  silly  ridicule  to 
deep  admiration. 

One  of  the  best  lessons  to  be  read  from  these 
two  names  is  the  warmth  of  their  hearts. 
64 


Washington  and  Lincoln,  II 

There  was  no  indifference  in  these  two  char- 
acters. Great  as  their  minds  were,  they  were 
also  powerful  in  their  aif  ections.  Washington 
suffers  now  from  the  peculiar  dignity  of  the 
old  literary  style.  That  style,  perfected  by 
Addison  and  Johnson,  made  a  letter  from 
friend  to  friend  as  pompous  as  a  President's 
message  or  a  King's  address  to  a  Parliament. 
Hamilton,  George  "Washington,  and  Martha, 
each  man  and  woman,  used  the  style  of 
Edmund  Burke  ;  and  a  love-letter  read  like 
an  oration.  But  translating  Washington's 
letters  into  the  simple  English  of  to-day,  he 
is  seen  at  once  to  have  been  a  man  of  deep 
love,  with  his  country  one  of  the  chief  objects 
of  his  passion.  The  kindness  and  pathos  of 
Mr.  Lincoln  are  better  seen  because  they 
are  expressed  in  the  dialect  of  our  time, 
while  the  same  qualities  in  Washington  are 
toned  down  by  the  stateliness  of  the  Mil- 
tonian  English.  When  Washington  had 
bidden  good-bye  to  Lafayette  he  followed 
the  noble  French  patriot  with  a  letter 
which  shows  the  tenderness  of  the  Amer- 
ican's heart : 

"  In  the  moment  of  our  separation,  upon 
the  road  as  we  travelled  and  every  hour  since, 
I  have  felt  all  the  love,  respect  and  attach- 
65 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

ment  for  you  with  which  length  of  years, 
close  connection,  and  your  merits  have  in- 
spired me.  I  often  asked  myself  as  our  car- 
riages separated  whether  that  was  the  last 
sight  I  should  ever  have  of  you.  My  fears 
answered  yes.  I  called  to  mind  the  days  of 
my  youth,  that  they  had  long  fled  to  return 
no  more  ;  that  I  was  now  descending  the  hill 
I  had  been  fifty-two  years  in  climbing,  and 
that  although  I  was  blessed  with  a  good 
constitution  I  was  of  a  short-lived  family  and 
might  soon  expect  to  be  entombed  in  the 
mansion  of  my  fathers.  These  thoughts 
darkened  the  shades  and  gave  a  gloom  to  the 
picture  and  consequently  to  my  prospect  of 
seeing  you  again."  Strip  this  letter  of  its 
stateliness  and  it  recalls  a  tearful  carriage 
ride  from  Mt.  Yernon  to  Annapolis.  Wash- 
ington and  Lafayette  journeying  towards  the 
harbour  whence  the  great  friend  of  freedom 
was  to  sail  for  France,  riding  along  mile  after 
mile,  in  the  Indian  summer  of  Maryland, 
make  a  picture  which  is  easily  filled  with  all 
the  friendship  and  nobleness  and  pathos  of  the 
once  real  life.  It  does  not  ask  for  much 
imagination  to  bring  that  good-bye  ride  so 
near  and  real  as  to  make  the  rattle  of  the 
carriages  audible  and  the  slow  procession 
66 


Washington  and  Lincoln,  II 

visible  on  a  long  hillside,  and  thus  visible  are 
the  travellers. 

It  is  of  fresh  memory  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
was  a  man  of  unusual  warmth  of  heart — a 
twofold  reminder  in  these  two  names  that 
our  age  asks  for  men  not  of  vast  wealth  and 
of  endless  political  acuteness  but  men  who 
can  love  the  country  and  be  once  more  as  a 
father  full  of  affection  for  all  the  household. 
Men  without  affection  for  their  nation  make 
citizens  like  Benedict  Arnold,  Aaron  Burr,  or 
the  advocates  of  Anarchy  or  political  frauds. 
The  country  needs  only  those  children  who 
are  capable  of  studying  the  great  pages  of 
history  and  of  forming  tender  attachments  for 
all  that  is  good  in  our  national  career.  It  is 
the  evil  of  our  day  that  the  human  heart  has 
passed  out  of  power,  and  that  machine 
natures  have  attempted  to  fill  up  the  tremen- 
dous vacancy.  The  Treasury  at  Washington 
is  full  but  the  Nation's  heart  is  empty.  The 
rights  of  the  negro  are  not  secured  to  him  ; 
the  tremendous  frauds  of  corporations  are 
permitted  to  go  on  with  a  growing  robbery 
of  the  people,  and  all  because  the  love  of  the 
whole  country  is  inactive  and  men  of  great 
brain  have  displaced  the  men  of  large  soul. 
This  disease  of  the  political  heart  is  so  in- 
67 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

fectious  that  we  all  are  touched  with  its 
blight,  and  look  upon  our  country  as  only  a 
soulless  corporation. 

But  our  government  is  not  a  corporation. 
It  is  a  vast  family  of  dependent  ones  where 
hearts  and  hands  should  be  joined  for  mutual 
welfare.  Washington  and  Lincoln  being  ab- 
sent, the  Congress  and  the  President  stand  in 
loco  parentis,  and  should  carry  onward  all 
that  old  sympathy  with  the  people  which 
made  all  the  old  glory  of  our  fathers.  A 
colonial  officer  once  wrote  to  Washington, 
suggesting  that,  in  case  independence  was 
secured,  they  establish  an  American  king ; 
that  the  people  could  never  rule.  Washing- 
ton quickly  wrote  to  the  young  aristocrat 
never  to  speak  or  even  think  of  such  a  re- 
sult again — that  the  coming  government 
must  be  that  of  the  people.  Thus  was  he 
the  people's  friend,  and  now  that  these 
States  are  occupied  by  fifty  millions  of 
people,  the  need  of  a  friend  has  not  under- 
gone any  decline.  These  millions  are  not 
rich  nor  powerful,  they  need  a  government 
which  can  secure  to  them  "  life,  liberty  and 
the  pursuit  of  happiness." 

That  our  country  is  not  a  cold  corporation 
may  be  read  from  the  peculiar  concomitants 
68 


Washington  and  Lincoln,  II 

in  its  progress.  Our  national  l^rnns  betray 
a  national  soul.  Had  the  old  East  India 
Company  any  hymns  ?  Has  any  corpora- 
tion in  our  land  any  great  dead,  any  heroic 
graves,  where  students  and  benefactors  stand 
to  ponder  and  admire  ?  Have  these  corpora- 
tions any  eloquence  like  that  of  Patrick 
Henry,  Henry  Clay,  Daniel  Webster,  and 
of  Lincoln  at  Gettysburg  ?  Have  they  any 
self-denial  like  that  of  the  soldiers  who  fell 
at  Yorktown  or  in  the  Wilderness  ?  Have 
they  any  poetry  like  "The  Star-Spangled 
Banner  "  ?  Have  they  any  torn  and  powder- 
stained  battle-flags?  Hear  these  words,  a 
part  of  a  vast  hymn  : 

11  Oft  o'er  the  seaman's  or  the  soldier's  bier 
Droops  the  dear  banner  for  his  glittering  pall, 
Where  every  star  might  seem  an  angel's  tear, 
And  every  stripe  Christ's  mercy  covering  all, 

"  See  from  the  rampart  how  the  freshening  breeze 
Flings  out  that  flag  of  splendour,  where  the  Night 
Mingles  with  flaming  Day  its  blazonries, 
And  spreads  its  wavy  azure,  star-bedight." 

Did    ever    the    noblest    corporation — the 

London  Bank— did  the  meanest  in  the  world 

ever  fly  such  a  holy  banner,  and  compose 

such    words    of    eulogy  ?     Ah,    no !     Our 

69 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

country  is  not  a  corporation ;  it  is  a  senti- 
ment also,  like  that  which  binds  the  inmates 
of  a  home  all  into  one  love  through  life  and 
death. 

Washington  and  Lincoln  should  stand  as 
proofs  forever  that  our  Nation  is  a  great 
beating  heart,  capable  of  many  sorrows  and 
a  many-coloured  happiness ;  a  great  heart 
like  that  of  Jesus,  which  must  embrace  mil- 
lions in  its  measureless  affections,  and  love 
all  equally.  All  the  struggles  and  disap- 
pointments and  labours  of  Washington,  all 
the  similar  pains  and  tears  of  Lincoln  tell 
us  that  when  we  come  to  the  words  "  our 
country "  we  have  come  to  a  living  soul, 
that  ought  to  be  as  omnipotent  as  the  hand 
of  God,  as  loving  and  pure  as  the  heart  of 
Jesus,  the  Son  of  God  and  of  all  humanity. 

Washington  came  up  from  Virginia, 
Lincoln  down  from  Illinois ;  both  came  in 
one  spotless  honour,  in  one  self-denial,  in 
one  patience  and  labour,  in  one  love  of  man : 
both  came  in  the  name  of  one  simple  Chris- 
tianity ;  both  breathing  daily  prayers  to 
God, — thus  came,  as  though  to  picture  a 
time  when  Yirginia  and  Illinois,  all  the 
South  and  all  the  North,  would  be  alike, 
— one  in  works,  in  love,  in  religion,  and  in 
70 


Washington  and  Lincoln,  II 

all  the  details  of  national  fame.  If  any  of 
you  young  hearts  have  begun  to  forget  your 
Nation  and  its  heroes,  you  would  better  sit 
down  by  her  rivers  and  remember  your  lost 
Zion,  and  weep  as  the  old  vision  unveils 
itself,  and  then  pray  God  to  let  your  right 
hand  forget  its  cunning  rather  than  permit 
your  soul  to  empty  itself  of  your  country. 


Ill 

JAMES  A.  GAKFIELD' 

IN  that  part  of  our  earth  which  was  made 
memorable  by  the  presence  of  Jesus  many 
of  the  cities  and  towns  were  located  upon 
the  summit  of  a  hill  or  mountain.  The  op- 
pressive temperature  of  the  summer  months, 
and  military  considerations,  and  also  a  sense 
of  the  beautiful  led  those  who  were  about  to 
found  a  village  or  a  city  to  seek  not  always 
some  river-bank  or  lake-shore,  but  some  hill 
or  crag  or  mountain.  Nazareth,  the  town  of 
Christ's  early  life,  was  on  a  height,  and  on 
one  side  there  was  a  fearful  precipice  down 
which  the  offended  citizens  threatened  to 
throw  Him  who  had  rebuked  their  sins. 
The  two  mountains,  Moriah  and  Sion,  re- 
mind us  that  Jerusalem  was  seated  upon 
lofty  heights  and  was  a  grand  spectacle  to 
the  traveller  who  was  journeying  thither  in 
its  palmy  days.  The  Temple  of  Solomon, 

1  President  Garfield  was  shot  by  a  disappointed  office- 
seeker  July  1 ;  died  September  19,  1881. 
72 


James  A.  Garfield 

the  palaces  of  the  king  and  his  court,  with 
the  walls  and  watch-towers,  made  up  an  im- 
pressive scene  to  all  coming  along  the  valleys 
of  Kedron  and  Hinnom,  and  fully  justified 
the  thought  of  Christ  that  "  a  city  set  on  a 
hill  cannot  be  hid." 

The  domain  of  Christ  was  spiritual ;  when 
He  spoke  of  material  things  He  had  the 
spiritual  qualities  of  our  world  in  His  mind. 
He  wished  that  His  disciples  might  possess 
virtues  so  great  and  so  active  that  all  society 
might  behold  and  enjoy  their  righteousness 
and  benevolence.  The  ages  had  been  full  of 
diminutive  persons  who  lived  only  for  self 
and  for  all  small  results — persons  like  to 
lighted  candles  placed  under  a  bushel.  It 
was  time  other  forms  of  soul  should  appear, 
time  for  the  world  to  have  minds  and  hearts 
that  should  be  as  large  and  visible  as  cities 
upon  mountains.  Soon  after  the  great  Pales- 
tine Teacher  had  uttered  His  wish,  and  had 
given  the  nations  a  specimen  of  a  soul  too 
large  and  too  lofty  to  be  concealed,  the 
dream  began  to  find  fulfillment  in  many  of 
the  departments  of  human  life.  Thought 
and  sentiment  began  to  be  enlarged,  history 
began  to  record  greater  actions  and  to  re- 
ceive into  its  storehouse  greater  biographies. 
73 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

There  came  along  in  the  living  tide  men 
whose  heads  rose  above  the  multitude  like 
the  tall  cliff  which  "midway  leaves  the 
storm." 

Our  Nation  mourns  to-day  the  loss  of  one 
too  lofty  to  be  concealed.  All  the  grades  of 
society,  looking  up  from  the  door  of  cottage 
or  palace,  see  this  outline  of  a  scholar,  a  states- 
man, and  soldier  and  president,  and  all  mourn 
that  the  image  is  no  longer  to  be  seen  in 
life,  but  only  in  death's  pallor.  The  specta- 
cle is  made  unusual  not  only  by  the  merit  of 
the  man  who  has  died,  but  also  by  the  savage 
cruelty  of  the  wound  that  robbed  this  citizen 
of  his  existence.  The  eighty  days  of  physical 
and  mental  suffering,  of  alternate  hope  and 
fear,  days  which  reduced  a  powerful  man  to 
the  powers  of  only  an  infant,  add  their  awful 
part  towards  placing  his  name  fully  before 
the  civilized  portion  of  the  world.  Made 
conspicuous  by  his  character  and  works,  Mr. 
Garfield  becomes  conspicuous  by  his  misfor- 
tune. Thus  this  figure  stands  as  upon  a  hill, 
and  it  will  require  centuries  full  of  men  and 
of  events  to  hide  its  colossal  outline  from  the 
gaze  of  mankind.  Man  is  drawn  towards 
the  pathetic.  What  touches  his  heart 
touches  also  his  memory.  Pity  often  makes 
74 


James  A.  Garfield 

up  a  large  element  in  love.  Had  Mr.  Gar- 
field  died  of  disease  or  by  the  limitation  of 
nature  he  would  have  been  a  large  subject  of 
study,  but  millions  will  read  his  biography 
in  coming  years  because  it  ends  in  the  awful 
cloud  of  tragedy.  "What  do  we  witness  to- 
day, and  what  will  those  behold  who  shall 
in  future  times  run  over  the  black  and  white 
page  in  history,  black  with  misfortune,  white 
in  virtue  ?  It  must  come  to  us  as  a  peculiar 
fact  that  two  of  the  greatest  of  American 
names  are  now  made  more  sacred  by  the 
sadness  of  their  deaths.  As  though  the  over- 
ruling Providence  desired  that  the  young 
men  of  this  era  and  of  future  times  should 
study  deeply  the  lives  of  Garfield  and 
Lincoln,  their  deaths  were  made  tragic  to 
allure  the  student  towards  their  chapters  in 
the  annals  of  society. 

Looking  at  this  man  not  easy  to  be  hidden, 
we  see  the  ability  of  our  country  to  produce 
a  high  order  of  manhood.  That  liberty 
which  in  name  has  been  the  ideal  condition 
of  all  ages  here  verifies  all  the  old  hopes  and 
produces  a  symmetrical  character  strong  on 
every  side.  When  a  lad,  although  poor,  this 
Garfield  enjoyed  the  free  play  of  all  his  in- 
tellectual and  emotional  faculties.  He  was 
75 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

free  to  move  towards  books  and  profession 
and  wisdom.  All  the  gates  to  success  would 
open  to  him  as  willingly  as  they  had  opened 
to  a  Webster  or  a  Clay.  He  was  not  im- 
prisoned by  birth  nor  by  caste.  The  path  to 
law  or  to  statesmanship  was  as  free  to  him  as 
the  path  along  the  canal,  and  out  of  this  free- 
dom of  a  continent  came  an  ambition  of 
great  power.  Often  when  distinguished  vis- 
itors appear  in  London  they  are  given  the 
freedom  of  the  city  in  a  gold  box — an  ele- 
gant letter  before  which  the  doors  of  galler- 
ies and  libraries  and  parliaments  and  cathe- 
drals fly  open.  To  this  youth,  poor  and  un- 
known, the  nation  gave  the  freedom  of  the 
whole  circle  of  human  acquisition,  from  the 
study  of  Greek  to  a  place  in  the  army,  from 
the  hall  of  the  lawmaker  to  the  chair  of  a 
president ;  and  his  ambition  and  energy  were 
inspired  by  the  generous  offer.  Freedom 
does  not  confer  merit,  but  it  affords  an  op- 
portunity, and  even  allures  the  heart  along 
by  its  possible  rewards.  It  creates  a  land- 
scape which  charms  the  eye  of  each  one  set- 
ting out  upon  the  journey  of  life.  Despot- 
ism offers  a  desert  to  all  the  humble  of  birth ; 
if  poor  and  of  low  parentage  the  mind  sees 
only  an  arid  plain  without  tree  or  blossom : 
76 


James  A.  Garfield 

but  the  liberty  and  equality  of  this  land 
make  it  optional  with  the  traveller  whether 
the  plain  he  is  to  pass  over  shall  be  a  desert 
or  a  magnificent  garden.  All  is  left  to  per- 
sonal taste  and  industry  and  will.  And  this 
taste  and  industry  and  personal  power  are 
developed  by  the  many  and  great  rewards 
offered  to  their  growth.  Mr.  Garfield  is  one 
more  witness  in  this  great  spiritual  trial, 
and  his  testimony  is  direct  that  the  liberty 
of  America  is  the  greatest  opportunity  ever 
offered  to  man  as  man.  Elsewhere  rewards 
are  offered  to  the  few,  here  all  are  invited  to 
the  best  feast  of  earth. 

In  this  eminent  man  the  youth  of  to-day 
may  learn  that  early  poverty  and  hardships 
instead  of  breaking  the  heart  need  only  sober 
the  judgment  and  compel  that  common  sense 
to  come  early  and  richly  which  to  the  chil- 
dren of  luxury  comes  scantily  and  comes  late, 
if  ever  it  finds  a  dawn.  We  can  now  look 
back  and  perceive  that  the  hardships  in  the 
youth  of  him  who  died  as  a  president  was 
only  a  condition  of  things  which  made  all 
the  philosophy  which  came  to  the  young 
man  assume  a  practical  form.  It  was  not 
thought  a  philosophy  unless  it  held  in  its  so- 
lution much  of  human  happiness,  for  when  a 
77 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

toiler  along  a  canal  meditates  it  will  be  for 
the  welfare  of  man,  just  as  when  a  slave 
thinks,  he  thinks  of  liberty,  just  as  when  a 
fever-patient  dreams  his  dream  is  about  cold 
water.  It  has  been  stated  recently  that  the 
dreams  and  laws  of  reform  and  all  welfare 
do  not  come  down  from  the  rich  and  great 
but  up  from  the  poor.  Therefore  those 
statesmen  who  have  tasted  some  of  the  bitter 
things  of  the  world  know  best  how  badly 
the  waters  need  sweetening. 

This  patient  toiler  wrought  out  an  economy 
for  the  millions  of  youth  here  and  every- 
where. He  showed  what  will  and  industry 
and  exalted  purposes  can  accomplish  in  this 
wide  land — that  all  the  young  need  ask 
as  an  endowment  is  mental  and  physical 
health.  That  is  the  essential  capital  upon 
which  to  base  a  large  business  in  things 
either  mental  or  spiritual.  Out  of  energy 
and  taste  comes  the  real  dignity  of  man. 
This  dead  president  carries  us  back  to  the 
theory  of  old  Plato,  that  motion  or  energy 
lies  at  the  origin  of  the  universe,  that  the 
starry  skies  and  the  variegated  earth  are  only 
expressions  of  the  self-moved  mind.  To  this 
notion  this  one  heart  brings  us  back,  for  out 
of  its  self -moved  depths  there  issued  a  moral 
78 


James  A.  Garfield 

world  of  great  attractiveness.  Education, 
learning,  religion,  politics,  duty,  honour  and 
high  office  emerged  from  the  mind  which 
began  its  career  far  down  in  weakness. 
That  force  made  all  the  humble  days  and 
years  to  be  the  rich  veins  of  the  later  silver 
and  gold.  As  in  the  theology  of  nature  we 
gather  up  the  infinite  phenomena  of  land 
and  sea  and  sky  and  say  the  One  mind  made 
all  these  wonderful  and  beautiful  things,  so 
in  reading  this  biography  whose  last  page 
has  just  been  written  in  tears,  the  reader 
will  say,  Behold  what  goodness  and  great- 
ness have  moved  out  of  that  one  heart  in 
royal  pageantry! 

Was  James  A.  Garfield  great  ?  Ask  those 
early  years,  when  adverse  winds  always  as- 
sailed his  bark ;  ask  the  nights  of  study ;  ask 
the  schools  where  he  taught ;  ask  the  place 
where  he  worshipped;  ask  the  halls  where 
he  helped  enact  wise  laws ;  ask  the  battle- 
fields where  he  led  soldiers ;  ask  the  mag- 
nificent Capitol  where  he  was  crowned  as 
republicans  crown  their  chieftains ;  ask  the 
cottage  where  he  died.  If  out  of  the  answers 
to  these  questions  there  comes  not  the  wit- 
ness of  greatness  the  human  heart  must 
henceforth  toil  and  long  in  vain ;  earth  has 
79 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

no  greatness.  And  yet  all  this  human  excel- 
lence grew  up  out  of  our  national  resources 
as  though  to  show  the  world  the  peculiar 
richness  of  the  soil.  And  grew  inland  so  far 
that  we  cannot  say  that  England  or  Europe 
combined  with  America  to  cause  this  char- 
acter. The  boy  and  man  lived  in  the  heart 
of  the  continent  all  surrounded  by  his 
country;  and  he  lies  in  his  coffin  to-day 
a  dead  child  of  his  nation.  The  country 
mourns  to-day  not  only  because  a  man  has 
died,  and  died  unjustly,  and  painfully,  but 
also  because  that  man  was  her  son.  She 
had  reared  him,  she  saw  her  own  likeness 
in  his  face,  she  loved  him ;  in  him  were  a 
mother's  hopes.  This  land  herein  shows  not 
only  the  power  of  its  institutions  to  fashion 
a  noble  character,  but  that  power  of  appre- 
ciation and  grief  that  can  weep  for  one  thus 
overtaken  by  death. 

In  the  scene  of  these  few  days  we  must 
mark  some  signs  of  a  higher  civilization  and 
a  more  sensitive  brotherhood.  Looking  at 
the  assassin  we  might  despair  of  the  present 
and  the  future.  We  might  wonder  what  is 
the  value  of  schoolhouse  and  church  and 
literature  and  freedom  and  the  eloquence 
over  human  rights  if  out  of  these  beautiful 
80 


James  A.  Garfield 

things  there  can  stalk  a  man  much  more 
cruel  than  a  brute.  But  while  the  heart 
wonders  and  sinks  over  the  name  of  that 
one  savage  it  is  cheered  by  seeing  a  whole 
civilized  race  moved  by  a  divine  pity.  One 
vile  human  creature  wished  to  remove  Gar- 
field  from  life,  but  millions  upon  millions 
wished  him  to  live,  live  happily  and  live 
long.  Men  of  wealth  and  men  of  poverty, 
men  of  learning  and  men  of  scanty  educa- 
tion, men  of  all  the  political  parties,  men  in 
the  South  and  men  in  the  North,  and  the 
crowned  kings  and  queens  loved  the  life  of 
this  one  man  and  would  by  their  esteem 
have  carried  him  beyond  the  common  three- 
score years  of  pilgrimage.  His  death  was 
desired  by  the  lowest  one  of  the  human 
race ;  it  is  lamented  by  the  entire  population 
of  two  continents.  If  we  count  or  measure 
these  tears,  if  we  see  the  Queen  of  England 
ordering  her  court  to  put  on  the  emblems 
of  mourning,  we  cannot  but  conclude  that 
the  hate  of  the  one  assassin  is  sublimely  out- 
weighed by  the  esteem  of  the  world.  In 
presence  of  such  an  uprising  of  brotherly 
esteem  the  murderer  finds  his  proper  depth 
of  infamy.  In  the  light  of  a  universal  love 
we  see  the  dark  cruelty  of  the  crime. 
Si 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

But  we  must  not  forget  that  we  have  as- 
sembled to-day  in  the  name  of  the  weekly 
service  of  God.  If  in  this  life  of  a  president 
any  quality  of  Christianity  is  placed  upon  a 
mountain  top  that  quality  cannot  remain 
hidden.  In  our  times  when  there  is  threat- 
ened an  eclipse  of  faith  all  religious  minds 
must  be  happy  to  recognize  the  public  man 
who  in  his  best  manhood  saw  the  power  of 
a  belief  in  God.  He  realized  the  perfect 
grandeur  of  the  words  "  The  Lord  reigns." 
He  uttered  them  in  an  hour  of  great  national 
darkness,  and  the  populace  needed  no  other 
eloquence ;  and  when  in  July  last  the  one  who 
had  offered  consolation  in  calamity  needed 
some  refuge  for  himself  he  said  he  was  ready 
to  die  or  to  live.  ISTot  the  details  of  any  church 
faith  came,  but  the  great  ideas  of  the  Christian 
religion  grouped  themselves  around  his  bed — 
the  best  angels  of  those  sad  nights,  for  they 
were  to  help  him  when  the  skill  of  man 
should  fail. 

It  would  be  unjust  to  the  name  of  Christ 
to  say  that  Mr.  Garfield's  religion  was  only 
that  of  nature,  only  such  general  thoughts 
as  were  cherished  by  Greek  and  Roman 
pagans.  His  faith  came  to  him  through  the 
church  of  the  age  as  it  communicates  its 
82 


James  A.  Garfield 

ideas  through  pulpit  and  press  and  the  Tes- 
tament, as  it  is  wont  to  surround  and  teach 
the  young  all  through  the  days  of  formation, 
of  passion  and  temptation.  That  church  en* 
compassed  this  youth  with  its  hymns  and 
morals  and  trust  and  hope,  and  if  at  last  the 
world  saw  evidences  of  that  honour  so  con- 
spicuous in  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  and 
that  belief  in  heaven  so  visible  in  Jesus 
Christ  it  is  under  some  obligation  to  confess 
that  Christianity  helped  form  that  character 
which  to-day  all  admire  and  lament.  Beyond 
doubt  daily  association  with  learned  men  of 
all  the  different  religious  sects,  and  the  daily 
discovery  that  many  creeds  made  only  one 
kind  of  religious  manhood,  turned  Mr.  Gar- 
field  away  from  the  distinctive  doctrines  of 
a  denomination  and  led  him  into  the  concord 
of  faith  rather  than  into  its  discord ;  but  in 
estimating  the  greatness  of  his  character  we 
must  declare  that  his  moral  symmetry  was 
Christlike,  and  Christlike  his  repose  in  the 
hope  of  a  second  life.  From  his  official  and 
personal  height  he  reminds  the  whole  land 
that  there  should  be  church  doors  open  to 
all  the  youth,  inviting  them  away  from  the 
sins  of  the  street  and  from  the  freezing  touch 
of  a  godless  air ;  there  should  be  a  Sunday 

83 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

secured  to  the  young  and  old,  that  there 
might  be  some  hours  of  sunlight  for  those 
delicate  plants — faith  and  spirituality.  If 
our  Nation,  destined  in  a  generation  more  to 
surpass  all  upon  the  globe  in  power,  material 
and  mental,  desires  to  be  governed  by  able 
and  good  men  it  must  see  to  it  that  the 
schoolhouse,  and  the  church  with  its  day  of 
rest,  are  kept  open,  for  through  these  the 
young  pass  on  their  way  to  all  great  beauty 
of  character  and  usefulness  of  life. 

It  has  been  the  reproach  of  our  country 
that  it  is  not  rich  in  history ;  that  the  mind 
must  look  beyond  the  ocean  or  travel  beyond 
the  ocean  to  reach  the  presence  of  all  that  is 
deemed  impressive.  We  have  no  venerable 
architecture,  no  historic  church,  no  places  of 
fame,  no  throne-rooms  or  prisons  or  towers 
or  crowns  or  jewels  made  affecting  by  the 
annals  of  a  thousand  years.  This  objection 
to  our  new  world  is  well  made ;  but  this 
poverty  of  our  country  is  being  rapidly  ex- 
changed for  riches — the  riches  seen  in  such 
men  as  Lincoln  and  Garfield  and  similar 
moral  products  of  the  Republic.  A  nation 
will  not  long  remain  without  history  when 
the  lives  of  such  men  are  rapidly  entering 
into  the  great  open  page.  The  old  world  in 


James  A.  Garfield 

its  thousand-year  period,  reaching  from  the 
Twelfth  Century  to  the  Nineteenth,  cannot 
point  us  to  better  names — names  which  stand 
for  a  better  union  of  intelligence  and  ability 
and  integrity  and  charity  and  heroism.  Old 
history  can  point  us  to  violent  deaths  of  rulers, 
and  can  say  here  Charles  I  was  beheaded;  here 
Mary  of  the  Scots  died;  here  Marat  was  slain ; 
but  our  two  great  presidents  have  been  slain 
not  by  a  multitude  which  was  wronged  but 
by  private  fanatics,  in  their  attack  as  unau- 
thorized as  beasts  of  prey.  "While  old  his- 
tory abounds  in  instances  where  men  died  for 
some  sins  or  wrongs,  our  new  history  points 
us  to  two  great  leaders  who  were  the  un- 
happy victims  each  of  a  single  wicked  heart ; 
and  died  to  gratify  no  party  but  amid  the 
tears  of  all  parties  and  factions  of  the  land. 

Kapidly  is  our  country  making  up  a  history 
which  will  surpass  those  books  we  all  read 
in  our  early  years.  It  cannot  be  affirmed  of 
many  of  those  illustrious  ones  whose  names 
besprinkle  the  records  of  human  life  that  they 
surpassed  this  Garfield  in  the  power  to  meas- 
ure the  wants  of  society  and  in  the  sympathy 
that  cannot  forget  the  welfare  of  the  people. 
Where  ancient  great  men  trampled  about  in 
the  living  fields,  this  man  walked  softly,  f ear- 
85 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

ing  lest  some  flower  might  be  crushed.  That 
attachment  to  the  aged  mother,  that  meas- 
ureless attachment  to  the  wife,  were  onlj 
evidences  that  this  President  was  the  type 
and  product  of  a  new  age  which  was  putting 
aside  ferocity  and  was  reaching  a  sensibility 
as  to  human  rights  which  was  not  present  in 
the  men  who  ruled  once  those  nations  which 
now  boast  of  possessing  history.  The  Ameri- 
can pages  may  not  be  many,  but  compara- 
tively they  are  white. 

Must  we  not  to-day  read  anew  the  lesson  of 
mortality  ?  Must  not  we  who  have  come  into 
this  church  from  the  many  paths  of  the  world, 
along  which  paths  we  too  are  allured  by  some 
one  of  the  many  forms  of  ambition  and  hope, 
feel  deeply  the  undeniable  fact  that  we  are  all 
hastening  to  the  end  ?  The  closing  scene  may 
not  be  tragic,  but  it  is  coming.  "We  are 
asked  to  think  of  these  things  by  the  memory 
of  both  Lincoln  and  Garfield,  for  they  were 
both  half -melancholy  men,  the  former  loving 
pathetic  poetry,  the  latter  even  writing  it. 
Lincoln  in  the  height  of  his  fame  would  say : 

"  The  hand  of  the  king  that  the  sceptre  hath  borne, 
The  brow  of  the  priest  that  the  mitre  hath  worn, 
The  eye  of  the  sage  and  the  heart  of  the  brave, 
Are  hidden  and  lost  in  the  depths  of  the  grave. 
86 


James  A.  Garfield 

"  The  peasant  whose  lot  was  to  sow  and  to  reap, 
The  herdsman  who  climbed  with  his  goats  up  the  steep, 
The  beggar  who  wandered  in  search  of  his  bread, 
Have  faded  away  like  the  grass  that  we  tread. ' ' 

And  Garfield  in  the  height  of  his  success 
looked  upon  the  earth  of  his  triumph  with 
sad  eyes.  He  was  unable  to  forget  that  he 
and  all  he  loved  were  being  borne  along  by 
arms  mysterious  and  powerful.  All  sensitive 
minds  are  pathetic  and  almost  superstitious 
in  their  hours  of  meditation.  The  dictates 
of  reason  are  not  able  to  counteract  fully  the 
deep  attachments  of  the  heart  to  life  and 
friends  and  all  the  loved  ones.  When  the 
great  are  warm-hearted  they  are  melancholy 
and  most  plaintive.  May  you  all  possess  such 
a  pathetic  estimate  of  our  earth ;  may  you 
all  see  the  tomb  ward  march  of  man,  so  read 
the  vanity  of  riches  and  fame  and  home  and 
love,  that  you  shall  be  compelled  to  become 
children  of  God  and  of  Jesus  Christ, — thus, 
children  of  the  final  country  that  knows  no 
funeral  pageants,  no  days  of  bitter  disap- 
pointment. 


IY 
CHARLES  SUMNER' 

THE  world  has  always  loved  to  speak  of 
the  Infinite  One  as  being  the  "  God  of 
Nations,"  because  there  is  a  greatness  involved 
in  the  idea  of  Nation  which  makes  it  seem 
worthy  of  the  attention  and  love  of  the  In- 
finite. It  is  easy  for  the  individual  heart, 
possessed  of  ordinary  humility,  to  feel  quite 
overlooked  in  the  daily  administrations  of 
Providence,  but  a  nation  is  something  so 
vast  in  its  interests  and  in  its  life  which  lies 
over  centuries,  that  into  its  great  events  men 
can  generally  see  descending,  in  love  or 
wrath,  the  sublime  form  of  God.  Notwith- 
standing the  most  elaborate  and  conclusive 
argument  that  our  Heavenly  Father  is  in  all 
places  and  times  alike,  yet  we  all  go  away 
from  the  argument  to  confess  Him  sooner  at 
Waterloo  than  where  a  child  is  playing  or  a 
bird  singing ;  more  visible  where  slaves  are 
shouting  in  a  new  liberty  than  where  a 
fanner  turns  his  furrow  or  the  lonely  wood- 

1  Died  March  11,  1874, 
88 


Charles  Sumner 

man  swings  his  axe.  Thus  marking  the 
habits  of  the  human  mind,  we  may  perceive 
at  least  how  great  a  thing  is  a  nation.  What 
a  vast  idea  it  is,  that  it  always  claims  the 
care  of  the  Almighty,  and  almost  compels 
the  atheist  to  confess  that  there  is  at  least  a 
nation's  God. 

A  nation  is  a  second  world  into  which  we 
are  all  born.  The  first  world  is  only  the 
good  green  earth,  with  its  seasons,  and  food, 
and  labour,  and  natural  vicissitudes ;  but 
this  is  a  poor  birthplace  for  a  mind  or  a 
soul,  for  into  these  poor,  brutish  arms  falls 
the  Indian  child  or  the  young  Arab.  To  be 
born  into  earth  alone  is  a  fate  that  robs  a 
birthday  of  all  worth.  It  is  only  an  animal 
that  is  born  to  earth  alone.  It  is  only  when 
some  second  world  called  a  "  nation "  be- 
comes the  soul's  cradle  that  it  becomes  de- 
sirable to  fall  heir  to  life.  A  nation  is  a 
grand  equipment  for  a  career ;  it  is  food, 
and  clothes,  and  friends  first,  and  education, 
and  employment,  and  culture,  and  religion 
afterwards.  It  is  the  atmosphere  into  which 
the  many-winged  spirit  comes;  and  a  bird 
might  as  well  spread  its  wings  in  a  vacuum 
as  for  a  human  soul  to  be  born  away  from 
the  treasured-up  virtues  of  a  national  life. 
89 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

When  the  rude  black  face,  with  retreating 
forehead  and  great  thick  lips,  meets  you  on 
the  Southern  coast,  you  know  that  that 
being  was  born,  but  you  associate  with  this 
knowledge  the  other  fact  that  he  was  born 
to  savage  Africa.  Great  beyond  all  estimate, 
therefore,  is  the  fact  of  nation,  for  it  shapes 
the  soul,  and  is  the  joy  or  sorrow  of  every 
being  that  comes  into  this  existence.  As 
when,  in  the  setting  sun,  after  a  summer 
shower,  all  things,  clouds,  hills,  trees,  and 
even  the  very  grass  and  the  faces  of  our 
friends  standing  in  the  refracted  light  are 
covered  with  the  tinge  of  gold,  so  when  man 
is  born  into  a  nation  he  is  instantly  bathed 
in  its  light,  and  sets  forth  in  a  double  destiny, 
that  of  man  and  that  of  citizen ;  and  it  is, 
for  the  most  part,  the  latter  destiny  that  de- 
termines the  value  of  life.  When  Bunyan 
saw  a  culprit  ascending  the  steps  to  the 
gallows,  he  said :  "  That  were  I,  but  for  the 
Grace  of  God ; "  but  this  Grace  does  not 
busy  itself  only  with  individuals  here  and 
there,  but  it  marks  out  a  vast  realm  and 
makes  it  a  great,  free,  civilized  state,  and 
then  the  millions  that  come  into  life  in  its 
blessed  confines  can,  in  their  later  years, 
when  they  realize  the  value  of  the  great 
90 


Charles  Sumner 

fatherland,  say,  "  I  was  a  savage,  a  Congo 
negro,  but  for  the  Grace  of  God." 

Next  to  the  grandeur  of  a  planet  with  a 
thousand  millions  of  people  upon  its  bosom, 
whirling  them  along  through  day  and  night, 
and  summer  and  winter,  and  youth  and 
old  age,  comes  the  grandeur  of  a  well- 
equipped  State  which,  for  hundreds  of  years, 
guards  the  liberty,  and  industry,  and  educa- 
tion, and  happiness  of  her  dependent  millions, 
crowding  her  influence  in  upon  them  gently 
as  the  atmosphere  lies  upon  the  cheek  in 
June.  Her  language,  her  peculiar  genius, 
her  ideals,  her  religion,  her  freedom,  enwrap 
us  better  than  our  mother's  arms,  for  the 
State  enwraps  her  too,  and  wreathes  her  fore- 
head with  a  merit  that  warrants  her  office  and 
her  affection.  The  State  is  defined  to  be  a 

"  .     .     .     Sovereign  law,  that  with  collected  will, 
Sits  Empress,  crowning  good,  repressing  ill. 
Smit  by  her  sacred  frown 
The  fiend  Dissension  like  a  vapour  sinks 
And  e'en  the  all  dazzling  Crown 
Hides  his  faint  rays  and  at  her  bidding  shrinks." 

Whence  comes  this  grand  instrument 
which,  as  now  existing  in  our  continent, 
under  the  flag  of  liberty,  pours  around  forty 
millions  of  people  such  a  golden  air  as 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

no  millions  ever  breathed  before  ?  Who 
gathered  these  flowers  that  wreathe  equally 
our  cradle,  our  altar,  our  homes,  and  our 
whole  earthly  pilgrimage  ?  This  much  of  a 
reply  is  given  by  human  experience :  Noth- 
ing comes  to  man,  of  excellence,  without 
labour.  All  that  man  possesses  of  art,  sci- 
ence, or  literature,  or  invention,  has  come  by 
regular  payments  made  in  hard  toil.  As  the 
verdure  that  waves  over  the  whole  earth  has 
come  from  the  daily  sacrifice  of  the  sun's 
heat,  so  the  glory  manifold  of  each  great 
nation  has  come  by  the  path  of  human  sacri- 
fice of  thought,  and  toil,  and  even  life  ;  and 
so  valuable  have  been  the  national  ideas, 
that,  for  all  the  good  the  world  possesses, 
there  have  been  fields  baptized  with  the 
heart's  best  blood.  Young  though  many  of 
the  modern  free  nations  may  be  in  their 
present  name  and  form,  yet  back  of  each 
one  lie  a  thousand  years  of  active  labour,  and 
often  of  deep  agony.  As  geologists  now  tell 
us  that  before  God  fitted  up  this  earth  for 
man,  while  the  mists  were  rising  from  its 
heated  seas,  and  condensing  in  the  cooler 
upper  air,  there  were  often  awful  storms 
where  the  thunder  rolled  incessantly  for  a 
hundred  years ;  so  each  nation  which  we  see 
92 


Charles  Sumner 

standing  forth  now  in  peace  and  beauty — 
England,  Germany,  America — has  emerged 
from  a  thousand-year  storm,  where  the  wrath 
of  man  has  rolled  in  thunder  for  centuries, 
and  the  cruel  skies  have  rained  blood.  One 
of  the  poets  says  : 

"  A  thousand  years  scarce  serve  to  form  a  state." 

And  oh !  what  years  of  toil  and  vicissitude 
they  are  to  the  brains  which  stand  at  the 
throne,  and  to  the  hearts  that  stand  in  the 
battle,  and  to  the  widow  and  orphan  who 
weep  when  the  smoke  rolls  away  and  reveals 
the  dead ! 

If  then  a  great  nation  like  our  own  has 
come  over  a  two-thousand-year  path  under  a 
sky  of  alternate  peace  and  storm,  come  along 
from  free  Athens,  and  free  Rome  and  sacred 
Palestine,  there  must  have  been  all  along 
guardian  angels  of  its  long  journey,  glorious 
leaders  of  its  wilderness  march ;  souls  that 
smote  rocks  for  its  thirsty  multitudes,  and 
prayed  down  manna  in  the  still  night.  The 
morals  of  our  day  can  look  back  and  see 
their  Seneca,  their  Confucius,  but  chiefly 
their  Divine  Jesus ;  the  art  of  our  era  looks 
back  and  beholds  its  Phidias,  its  Apelles,  its 
Angelo,  linking  the  future  and  the  past ; 
93 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

poetry  and  all  literature  look  back  and  cast 
smiles  of  gratitude  to  Homer  and  Thucydides 
and  Dante ;  the  law  confesses  the  deep 
devotion  of  Cicero  and  Justinian  as  minds 
who  studied  justice  when  the  world  seemed 
young. 

And  now,  beholding  this  differentiation  of 
men  by  a  wise  providence  of  God,  so  that 
each  part  of  the  soul's  vast  vineyard  may 
have  some  one  to  love  its  vines,  we  reach 
the  easy  conclusion  that  the  same  wisdom 
will  permit  us  always  to  hold  in  memory  and 
in  love  men  who,  turning  aside  from  other 
pursuits,  have  found  in  the  study  and  love 
and  service  of  their  nation  their  own  special 
path  between  the  cradle  and  the  grave.  It 
is  a  blessed  thought  that  there  have  risen  up 
here  and  there  not  only  hearts  that  could 
weave  the  sweet  songs  of  a  Yirgil,  and  not 
only  hands  that  could  paint  the  pictures  of  a 
Parrhasius,  or  that  could  strike  the  notes  of 
a  Mozart;  not  only  minds  that  may  throw 
up  a  dome  of  St.  Peter's,  or  that  may  as- 
tonish the  world  with  their  invention,  but 
also  other  hearts  which  have  loved  the  idea 
of  Nation,  and  have  lived  and  died  not  in  the 
arms  of  a  friend,  but  rather  in  the  arms  of 
the  country.  Out  of  the  thoughts  and  love 
94 


Charles  Sumner 

and  specialization  of  these  great  ones  we, 
humbler  children  of  the  State,  have  all 
drawn  our  happiness  and  freedom,  as  the  vio- 
lets are  invited  into  life  by  the  all-loving  sun. 
In  the  week  past  the  grave  has  opened 
suddenly  and  taken  back  one  of  these  souls 
which  seem  sent  of  God  to  know  nothing 
else  but  their  country,  as  Paul  knew  nothing 
else  but  the  Cross.  Into  that  tomb  which 
grows  wider  each  year  and  has  received 
away  from  our  sight  Washington  and  the 
Adamses  and  Jefferson  and  Clay  and  Webster 
and  Lincoln,  at  last  has  been  gathered  one 
more  name  wreathed  as  heavily  as  any  with 
the  glorious  ideas  and  honours  of  our  great 
Republic.  Napoleon  loved  not  a  nation,  but 
his  own  power.  He  was  a  student  not  of 
justice,  but  of  crowns ;  he  studied  how  to 
destroy  other  diadems,  and  of  their  jewels 
weave  one  for  himself. 

"  The  triumph  and  the  vanity, 

The  rapture  of  the  strife, 
The  earthquake  voice  of  victory, 

To  thee  the  breath  of  life  ; 
The  sword,  the  sceptre,  and  that  sway, 

Which  mail  seemed  made  but  to  obey, 
Wherewith  renown  was  rife, 

All  quell'd  !    Dark  Spirit,  what  must  be 
The  madness  of  thy  memory  !  " 
95 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

But  the  memory  of  that  life  just  ended  has 
no  madness  in  it,  but  is  all  a  remembrance 
of  honour,  and  charity,  and  peace. 

It  seems  especially  fitting  the  day  and  place 
that  we  should  devote  this  hour  to  thoughts 
over  this  fresh  tomb,  for  the  greatness  of  Mr. 
Sumner's  career  is  strangely  interwoven  with 
some  of  the  noblest  ideas  of  Christianity; 
and  §this  union  was  not  accidental,  nor  pru- 
dential, but  spiritual  and  intellectual,  for  Mr. 
Sumner  in  his  life,  devoted  to  humanity,  so 
framed  all  his  arguments,  and  so  based  them 
upon  the  philosophy  of  Christ  that  the  per- 
petual return  of  the  terms  Christianity  and 
Saviour  betrays  the  fact  that  much  of  his 
eloquence  was  only  the  Sermon  upon  the 
Mount  applied,  not  to  the  future  of  the  soul, 
but  to  the  true,  earthly  progress  of  mankind. 
If  any  group  of  philosophers  were  to  sit 
down  with  the  Life  of  Christ  in  their  hands, 
with  the  desire  to  elaborate  a  political  con- 
stitution from  its  pages,  among  the  many 
principles  they  would  bring  forth  we  should 
at  once  certainly  find  these — peace,  justice, 
and  equality.  From  justice  would  instantly 
come  liberty.  Now  of  that  eventful  life 
whose  untimely  ending  drapes  this  day  with 
sorrow,  these  three  Christian  ideas,  peace, 


Charles  Sumner 

liberty,  and  equality,  were  the  opening  and 
final  strain,  the  matin  and  the  vesper.  The 
public  career  of  Mr.  Sumner  began  by  that 
unrivalled  oration  spoken  thirty  years  ago 
upon  peace  as  the  source  of  national  gran- 
deur ;  and  without  any  deviation,  any  falter- 
ing along  this  path,  he  is  found  at  last  on  the 
border  of  death,  asking  Congress  not  to  paint 
upon  its  flags  of  the  present  and  future  the 
names  of  battles  where  brothers  fought.  His 
life  was  all  set  to  one  music,  and  it  was  a 
heavenly  strain  without  discord. 

But  before  I  ask  you  to  think  of  those 
three  great  ideas,  in  which  Mr.  Sumner  did 
great  service  for  the  Christianity  out  of  which 
he  took  the  ideas,  and  the  Christlike  spirit, 
too,  permit  me  to  apologize,  so  far  as  it  may 
be  necessary,  for  the  marble  coldness  which 
has  long  been  associated  with  this  eminent 
character.  Let  us  empty  our  minds  of  this 
prejudice.  A  public  man,  writing  a  private 
letter  since  the  death  of  this  senator,  says : 
"  He  was  cold  as  a  statue.  He  was  a  child 
of  principles  and  books,  and  consequently 
had  little  in  common  with  the  humanities  of 
life.  ...  I  cannot  speak  of  him  generally  in 
this  regard ;  but  in  the  few  times  in  which  I 
dined  with  him  at  Mr.  Lincoln's  table,  he 
97 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

was  a  pleasant  dinner  companion,  and  con* 
versed  happily  and  instructively;  but  such 
times  were  only  little  outbreaks  of  sunlight. 
In  the  main,  he  was  behind  the  cloud,  and, 
while  full  of  gentle  humanity,  he  moved 
among  individuals  evolving  an  austere  sense 
of  superiority."  Against  the  truth  of  these 
statements  from  one  who  had  the  opportunity 
and  the  discrimination  for  reading  well  the 
qualities  of  this  distinguished  man,  we  would 
say  nothing;  indeed,  the  portraiture  just 
given  may  be  confessed  to  be  sufficiently 
correct.  But  that  he  was  capable  of  deep 
friendship  is  fully  seen  in  his  attachment  to 
the  loved  President,  whose  house  was  so  dear 
to  him  that  he  repaired  there  daily  as  to  a 
sacred  home  where  he  loved  all  and  was  also 
deeply  loved. 

Passing  by  this  inquiry,  I  only  wish  to 
remind  you  that  all  the  great  intellectual 
development  which  the  world  has  ever  seen 
has  been  reached  at  the  cost  of  the  heart. 
"  Where  the  treasure  is,"  says  the  Bible, 
"  there  the  heart  will  be  also  "  ;  and  hence, 
when  an  old  scholar  of  the  dark  ages  found 
his  love  of  thought  increasing,  he  began  to 
withdraw  from  the  streets,  and  to  find,  in 
some  monastic  cell,  all  of  the  world  that  any 
98 


Charles  Sumner 

longer  remained  in  his  heart ;  and  although 
the  dark  ages  are  gone,  and  the  monasteries 
are  dast,  yet  the  principle  remains  that, 
when  the  intellect  weds  itself  fully  to  cer- 
tain paths  of  study  and  toil,  the  heart  soon 
sunders  the  other  many  sweet  and  beautiful 
associations  of  the  wide  world,  and  casts  its 
love  upon  that  realm  only  to  which  the  in- 
tellect may  have  wedded  itself  for  better  or 
for  worse,  for  richer  or  poorer.  It  is  an  un- 
conscious sacrifice  which  genius  is  always 
compelled  to  make ;  but  it  is  no  more  visible 
over  the  grave  of  Sumner  than  over  the 
grave  of  Mill  in  philosophy,  or  Pascal  in 
metaphysics,  or  Angelo  in  art,  or  Cicero  in 
law  and  letters.  It  is  written  in  all  history 
that  a  life  of  thought  is  a  constant  warfare 
against  a  life  of  sociability  and  cheerfulness 
and  love.  Instead  of  recalling  the  marble 
coldness  of  past  illustrious  men  as  a  blemish 
or  a  fault  in  their  character,  we  only  indicate 
a  common  fact,  and  we  would  bury  the  de- 
fect forever  under  offerings  of  gratitude, 
that  there  have  come  here  and  there  souls 
which,  for  the  development  of  great,  useful 
ideas,  have  been  able  to  abandon  what  we 
mortals  in  a  humbler  vale  call  the  varied 
pleasures  of  life.  But  they  have  not  so 
99 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

much  lost  happiness  as  exchanged  that  of 
sense  for  that  of  spirit. 

Turning  aside  now  from  this  apology,  let 
us  rejoice  that  if  it  was  the  fate  of  the 
lamented  senator  to  live  for  only  a  part  of 
earth  and  for  only  a  part  of  religion,  that  it 
pleased  him  to  live  for  so  magnificent  a  part 
of  both  politics  and  religion  as  is  found  in 
the  words  peace,  justice,  and  liberty. 

It  was  not  Mr.  Sumner,  you  remember, 
who  advised  the  partnership  of  Bibles  and 
rifles  in  the  early  days  of  Kansas.  No,  in 
all  this  forty  years  of  public  life,  Mr.  Sumner 
stood  by  the  power  of  argument,  of  light,  of 
Christian  civilization  alone.  His  hymn  was 
the  poet's  psalm  of  peace : 

"  Were  half  the  power  that  fills  the  world  with  terror, 

Were  half  the  wealth  bestowed  on  camps  and  courts, 
Given  to  redeem  the  human  mind  from  error, 
There  were  no  need  of  arsenals  or  forts. 

41  The  warrior's  name  would  be  a  name  abhorred, 

And  every  nation  that  should  lift  again 
Its  hand  against  a  brother,  on  its  forehead 
Would  wear,  forever  more,  the  curse  of  Cain." 

In  the  pulpits  of  the  whole  land  the  Gospel 
doctrines  had,  for  the  most  part,  been  applied 
to  only  individual  welfare,  and  chiefly  to 
100 


Charles  Sumner 

that  welfare  beyond  the  confines  of  states — 
beyond  the  grave.  Afraid,  for  the  most 
part,  to  preach  what  they  called  politics ; 
and  having,  to  an  alarming  extent,  such  a 
bad  politics  that  it  was  perhaps  fortunate 
that  they  remained  silent  even  by  a  theo- 
logical mistake,  the  Christian  ministry  had, 
in  the  last  generations,  left  the  gospel  of 
nations  to  be  preached  by  the  few  disciples 
of  William  Penn  and  by  such  virtual  Quakers 
as  Channing  and  Whittier,  and  Sumner,  the 
greatest  of  all.  Upon  him  there  was  no 
restraint.  No  false  creed,  no  temporary 
policy  such  as  influenced  Webster  and  Clay, 
no  fear  of  violence,  no  fear  of  public  scorn, 
either  from  Boston  or  New  Orleans,  ever 
held  him  in  any  conceivable  chain,  but  from 
him,  the  freest  man  our  country  ever  had  in 
its  dark  days,  came  the  gospel  of  nations  in 
all  its  Bethlehem  beauty  of  truth  and  spirit. 
In  the  present,  and  more  yet,  in  the  near  and 
far  future,  the  pulpit  will  confess  that 
Charles  Sumner  was  a  minister  at  its  altar 
in  dark  days  when  it  was  afraid,  and  in  doc- 
trines to  the  grandeur  of  which  it  had  not 
the  intellect,  nor  the  courage,  nor  the  hu- 
manity to  ascend.  Penn  and  Channing  and 
Sumner  came  in  with  that  part  of  Christian- 
101 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

ity  which  belongs  to  the  constitution  of  na- 
tions ;  and  when  we  remember  that  a  grand, 
free,  enlightened  State  is  the  land  in  which 
the  Cross  can  ever  be  reared  with  most  suc- 
cess, the  orators  who,  upon  the  field  of 
statesmanship,  apply  to  society  the  three 
Christian  doctrines  of  peace,  liberty  and 
justice,  must  be  confessed  to  be  standing 
very  near  the  holiest  ministers  of  religion. 
As  the  church  helped  Mr.  Sumner,  gave  him 
hearts  willing  to  listen  to  his  long  argument, 
so  he  helped  the  church  by  sending  back  to 
it  men  who  evermore  tried  to  combine  the 
character  of  Christian  with  the  character  of 
citizen. 

But  Mr.  Sumner's  attachment  to  peace  was 
no  more  absorbing  and  unbending  than  his 
devotion  to  liberty.  For  liberty  is  twin 
sister  of  peace,  as  bondage  is  the  companion 
of  violence.  As  Franklin  gloried  in  saying 
"Where  liberty  is  there  is  my  country," 
Sumner  equally  gloried  in  saying  "Where 
liberty  is  there  is  my  party."  Down  this 
channel  of  freedom,  for  white  slaves  in 
Barbary,  and  for  black  slaves  in  America,  he 
poured  a  torrent  of  eloquence  for  twenty-five 
years,  a  stream  of  argument,  which  gathering 
up  the  wisdom  of  Greece  and  Rome,  the  ex- 
102 


Charles  Sumner 

perience  of  England,  the  battle-shouts  of 
Marathon  and  Bunker  Hill,  the  blest  vision 
of  all  the  poets,  the  longings  of  Washington 
and  Jefferson,  and  then  bedecking  the  stream 
with  flowers  of  a  gorgeous  rhetoric  growing 
upon  either  bank,  moved  along  like  an 
Amazon  towards  the  sea.  It  has  been  said 
recently  by  a  public  man,  that  Mr.  Sumner 
"surpassed  all  statesmen  in  the  love  and 
study  of  the  right."  It  was  this  deep  pre- 
possession that  led  him  to  espouse  the  cause 
of  the  slave.  Words  which  he  himself  applied 
to  Channing  thirty  years  ago  return  now  to 
settle  upon  his  own  forehead.  "  Follow  my 
white  plume,"  said  the  chivalrous  monarch 
of  France.  Follow  the  right,  more  resplend- 
ent than  plume  or  oriflamme,  was  the  watch- 
word of  Sumner.  But  all  this  long  history 
you  know  well,  for  in  this  hour  when  death 
has  come  to  quicken  our  memory  and  love, 
an  hour  which  makes  an  enemy  a  friend,  all 
that  past  struggle  for  the  slave's  freedom,  and 
the  discord  of  the  Missouri  Compromise  down 
to  the  death  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  a  tragedy  which 
closed  the  long,  awful  drama,  flashes  through 
your  hearts  with  no  detail  of  sadness  left  out. 
Kecall  the  great  pageant  and  see  this  white 
face  above  the  common  mortals. 
103 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

But  to-day,  we  can  only  turn  aside  from 
the  usual  themes  of  the  sacred  desk  to  bless 
the  heavenly  Father  for  this  child  that  came 
in  the  name  of  that  form  of  civilization  which 
finds  its  best  exponent  in  the  Saviour  of  man- 
kind, and  bless  Him  that  there  was  one  tongue 
which  for  a  generation  made  the  best  elo- 
quence of  this  free  land  beam  with  the  light  of 
Him  whose  gospel  is  not  only  a  perfect  salva- 
tion, but  a  perfect  civilization, — the  vital  air, 
not  only  of  a  saint,  but  of  a  citizen.  And  we 
cannot  close  these  thoughts  without  asking 
you  to  read  in  this  urn  of  perishable  dust,  but 
of  imperishable  memory,  a  lesson  of  hope 
which  may  serve  us  all  in  coming  days,  per- 
haps of  the  country,  but  surely  of  our  own 
heart.  When  government,  and  pulpit,  and 
press  were  voiceless  and  hopeless  as  to  a  time 
when  the  Nation's  flag  should  be  freed  from 
its  last  reproach,  this  mental  sight  which  is 
closed  now  saw  plainly  in  the  future  a  day 
when  all  the  States  would  be  free,  and  when 
the  national  banner  would  proclaim  liberty 
and  justice  wherever  it  should  wave.  His 
was  a  hopefulness  which  nothing  but  death 
could  abate ;  and  blest  with  such  a  prophetic, 
almost  inspired  sense,  he,  in  all  the  years  of 
our  civil  war,  was  calm,  and  was  to  Mr. 
104 


Charles  Sumner 

Lincoln,  upon  whose  mind  and  heart  a  burden 
rested  which  would  have  wearied  an  Atlas 
accustomed  to  uphold  the  globe,  a  daily 
messenger  of  faith  and  hope  in  both  man  and 
God.  Perhaps  the  marble-like  nature  of  the 
statesman  was  a  peace  and  strength  to  a 
president  whose  heart  was  always  full  of  ten- 
derness and  melancholy  strangely  mingled. 
That  immense  power  of  hope  which  has 
always  attended  men  of  ideals,  the  angel  of 
their  need,  accompanied  Mr.  Sumner  in  all 
hours,  and  held  him  up  far  above  the  discord 
of  the  passing  time.  A  poem  which  he 
greatly  loved  shows  us  what  kind  of  a  hymn 
sounded  in  the  sky  over  his  daily  toil.  It 
inspired  him  in  the  night  watches  : 

"  There's  a  fount  about  to  stream, 
There's  a  light  about  to  beam, 
There's  a  warmth  about  to  glow, 
There's  a  flower  about  to  blow. 
There's  a  midnight  blackness  changing 

Into  gray  ; 
Men  of  thought  and  men  of  action, 

Clear  the  way  !" 

Oh!  why  may  not  the  pulpit  and  each 

Christian  rise  to  this  calm  atmosphere  of  a 

trust  in   God,  and  as  this  statesman  always 

saw  liberty  and  justice  about  to  come  down 

I05 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

out  of  God's  sky,  why  may  not  the  soldier  of 
the  cross  daily  say  to  his  soul 

"  There's  a  fount  about  to  stream, 
There's  a  light  about  to  beam,'' 

and  live  in  this  magnificent  hope  ? 

But  our  time  has  passed.  Much  of  our 
country's  mental  and  moral  glory  has  gone 
down  in  past  years.  We  seem  to  have 
only  an  evening  horizon  into  which  golden 
suns  sink,  but  from  which  none  arise.  The 
melancholy  gate  of  death  by  which  these 
souls  depart  seems  wider  than  the  gates  of 
life  by  which  such  glorious  beings  are  march- 
ing towards  our  bereaved  hearts.  Yet  this 
apparent  triumph  of  the  grave  may  come 
from  the  fact  that  we  can  see  the  past  in  all 
its  desolation,  but  cannot  unveil  the  future 
and  see  its  compensating  good.  We  can  only 
hope  that  the  gates  of  God's  mercy  are  as 
wide  as  the  gates  of  His  death,  and  that  the 
solemn  West  into  which  these  lights  are  sink- 
ing from  our  sky  may,  by  its  shadows, 
remind  us  that  there  is  an  Eastern  heaven 
radiant  with  divine  love,  upon  whose  bosom 
other  orbs  will  appear,  resplendent  with 
peace,  justice,  and  liberty. 


1 06 


V 

WENDELL  PHILLIPS1 

AS  these  deaths  of  the  great  occur,  they 
become  more  and  more  painful,  be- 
cause the  group  of  heroes  grows  smaller,  and 
the  loss  of  one  more  great  soul  is  the  more 
deeply  felt.  It  has  not  been  many  years  since 
our  Nation  was  rich  in  the  style  of  manhood 
represented  by  him  who  has  just  been  buried. 
We  could  see,  not  long  ago,  Chase  and  Par- 
ker, Sumner  and  Henry  Wilson  and  Lincoln 
and  Greeley  and  Gerrit  Smith  and  Garrison, 
and  others  of  similar  power  ;  but  as  the  years 
have  gone  by,  these  have  gone  with  them,  and 
so  small  at  last  has  the  group  become,  that 
upon  each  new  invasion  of  death,  we  all  won- 
der if  any  one  remains  to  be  a  golden  link 
between  the  present  and  the  past.  So  rapidly 
do  these  noble  chieftains  fall  into  the  tomb 
that  many  of  the  young  minds  of  to-day  will 
never  see  any  one  of  these  noble  faces,  but 
will  be  compelled  to  find  their  souls  only  in 

1  Died  February  2,  1884. 
107 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

history.  Those  of  you  who  have  seen  and 
heard  all  these  great  Americans,  from  Web- 
ster to  Phillips,  may  well  be  proud  now  of 
such  a  memory.  They  surpassed  the  sculp- 
tor and  painter  and  poet  and  musician,  for 
while  those  artists  give  us  the  decorations 
and  pleasures  of  life,  these  statesmen  helped 
lay  the  foundations  of  liberty,  and  hence 
of  all  that  leans  upon  liberty  for  support. 
Art,  education,  commerce,  industry,  science, 
and  religion,  have  drawn  life  from  these 
master-builders  in  the  political  temple.  An- 
gelo  and  Raphael  in  art  are  outdone  by 
these  pioneers  in  the  career  of  our  republic. 
Art  comes  only  to  a  few ;  a  great  country 
empties  her  blessings  upon  all  the  millions, 
and  what  blessings  they  are  ! 

A  religious,  political  mind  like  that  of 
Wendell  Phillips  possesses  in  the  formative 
years  of  a  nation  a  worth  we  can  with  diffi- 
culty measure ;  certainly  we  cannot  rate  it 
at  too  high  a  price.  In  1836  this  man,  then 
fresh  from  the  schools  and  college,  and  with 
a  mind  blessed  far  beyond  the  lot  of  common 
mortals,  turned  aside  from  profession  and 
traffic,  to  give  his  hand  and  heart  to  one 
single  cause,  the  emancipation  of  his  coun- 
try's slaves.  From  1836  to  1863,  that  is,  for 
108 


Wendell  Phillips 

twenty-seven  years,  he  turned  the  river  of 
his  eloquence  down  through  that  barren  and 
dangerous  plain.  For  not  many  men  of 
even  Boston  birth  and  culture  touched  foot 
in  that  day  upon  the  land  of  negro  freedom. 
It  was  like  the  forest  that  lay  before  Dante 
in  his  dream,  full  of  wild,  ravenous  beasts — 
the  wolf  of  avarice,  the  leopard  of  sin,  the 
lion  of  power.  The  merchants  were  in- 
fluenced by  the  wolf  of  avarice,  the  fashion- 
able people  by  the  leopard  of  sin,  the  poli- 
ticians by  the  lion  of  power.  Dante,  in  pres- 
ence of  these  beasts,  determined  to  rise 
above  them  and  dream  of,  and  visit  heaven. 
So  Phillips,  in  his  glory  of  youth  and  genius, 
resolved  to  rise  above  all  these  destroyers 
and  find  those  heights  where  no  wild  beast 
has  a  lair — heights  towards  the  throne  of 
peace  and  right.  To  have  made  such  a 
choice  seems  easy  now,  but  had  this  entire 
audience  been  citizens  of  Boston  at  that 
date,  it  may  be  that  no  one  of  us  would  have 
offered  hand  or  heart  to  the  pleading  slave. 
The  tide  of  New  England  sentiment  flowed 
towards  the  cotton  which  grew  at  the  bid- 
ding of  the  slave ;  and  to  touch  slavery  was 
assumed  the  same  as  making  the  grass  to 
grow  in  the  manufacturing  streets.  Thus  an 
109 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

Abolitionist  was  deemed  an  enemy  of  the 
land  once  occupied  by  the  Puritans. 

When,  in  about  1840,  some  one  became 
bold  enough  to  bring  Frederick  Douglass 
into  Boston  to  preach  in  a  prominent  church 
upon  the  condition  and  rights  of  the  slaves, 
no  one  dared  to  invite  him  home  to  dinner 
after  the  morning  service ;  but  all  left  the 
eloquent  ex-slave  to  pass  the  afternoon 
among  the  tombstones  in  the  churchyard — 
perhaps  stones  in  memory  of  those  who  had 
sailed  from  Europe  or  England  to  establish 
liberty.  It  was  at  such  a  time  of  bondage  to 
commerce  and  manufactures  and  of  cruelty 
towards  man,  that  Mr.  Phillips  made  the 
vow  of  consecration  to  the  cause  of  freedom. 

Our  country  thus  suffers  the  loss  of  one 
who,  born  in  the  highest  rank  of  society,  de- 
clined its  luxury  and  exclusiveness,  and, 
Christlike,  went  down  to  the  humble  world 
of  the  African  to  be  his  friend.  It  was  an 
immense  gain  for  the  general  cause  of  hu- 
manity ;  for  not  only  came  thus  to  that  cause 
a  warm  heart  and  a  brave  soul,  but  there 
came  the  finest  orator  of  the  century— a 
mind  as  calm  as  the  blue  sky,  as  fascinating 
as  the  summer  time,  and  yet  as  powerful  as 
the  earthquakes  and  torrents  and  tempests, 
no 


Wendell  Phillips 

Very  often  the  poor  of  earth  have  had  to 
accept  of  the  services  of  some  man  whose 
mind  was  untrained,  whose  reason  was  weak, 
whose  judgment  was  quick  and  ill  founded, 
whose  information  small,  but  such  was  not 
the  misfortune  of  our  African  millions  in 
their  later  years.  There  came  to  their  aid 
the  best  sons  the  world  could  produce — 
Theodore  Parker,  Horace  Mann,  Thomas 
Starr  King,  Charles  Sumner  and  Wendell 
Phillips.  From  such  brains  and  souls  there 
poured  forth  for  twenty-five  years  a  stream 
of  matchless  eloquence  which  prepared  the 
Nation  for  that  day  when  ideas  would  be 
compelled  to  make  a  final  struggle  upon  the 
battle-field.  In  the  first  years  of  the  liberty 
movement  the  slave  had  few  friends  in  the 
North,  but  what  he  had  were  of  rare  quality. 
Slavery  held  the  trade  of  JSfew  England ; 
freedom  gradually  won  her  intellect  and 
heart ;  slavery  held  the  cotton-mill,  freedom 
the  library ;  slavery  was  represented  by  a 
policeman  with  a  metallic  star  on  his  breast 
and  a  club  in  his  hand ;  freedom  was  repre- 
sented by  an  orator  whose  forehead  was  as 
proud  as  that  of  Apollo  and  whose  lips  were 
like  those  of  Pericles  ;  the  ship-load  of  cotton 
from  the  Georgia  plantations  became  at  last 
in 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

less  valuable  than  the  divine  philosophy  upon 
New  England  soil,  and  in  the  sharp  conflict 
between  merchant  and  orator  the  orator  won. 

Gone  are  all  those  days  of  mingled  light 
and  darkness,  hope  and  fear,  great  virtues 
and  great  sins,  but  this  recent  death  has  re- 
called the  past,  and  may  well  awaken  in  our 
bosoms  gratitude  to  God  that  He  gave  to  our 
Nation  the  men  needed  in  its  successive  hours. 
We  should  be  dull  and  ungrateful  children 
should  we  not  see  the  many-coloured  glory  of 
those  past  years  and  realize  that  He  who 
planted  flowers  and  made  the  ocean  and  the 
stars  is  the  One  who  created  oratory  out  of 
the  dust  and  clothed  it  also  with  beauty  and 
power.  Oratory  is  the  universe  bursting  out 
into  speech. 

It  is  not  a  pertinent  inquiry  whether  Mr. 
Phillips  might  not  have  accomplished  more 
for  the  times  had  he  harmonized  more  with 
the  local  and  central  Government  and  had 
he  been  more  closely  allied  to  senates  and 
cabinets.  Such  questions  belong  rather  to 
some  shop  of  biography  or  history.  Two 
thoughts  in  that  matter  will  suffice  us  to-day ; 
the  one,  that  his  life  as  it  stands  was  so  full 
of  the  true  and  good  that  we  should  seem 
greedy  beggars  should  we  demand  more.  To 
112 


Wendell  Phillips 

come  along  with  our  perfect  ideal  of  a  states- 
man or  a  philanthropist,  and  to  set  about 
comparing  our  golden  and  divine  mask  with 
this  dead  human  face  would  be  only  an  illus- 
tration of  our  meanness  and  injustice.  In- 
stead of  coming  forward  with  our  portrait 
painted  after  the  fact,  after  the  long  battle 
and  the  death,  we  should  rather  come  with 
the  wonder  what  heroism  or  perfection  we 
would  have  shown  had  we  lived  in  that  New 
England  city  while  those  times  of  dull  con- 
science and  bridled  tongue  were  passing 
slowly  by.  Nor  can  we  determine  now  just 
how  great  a  crime  it  was  not  to  vote  at  the 
elections  nor  seek  the  duties  of  a  government 
which  could  open  its  new  Territories  to  the 
system  of  slavery,  and  which  could  compel  a 
Northern  man  to  help  capture  and  return  a 
fugitive  from  bondage.  So  difficult  are  these 
problems  that  we  may  well  thank  God  for 
what  of  pure  truth  and  nobleness  there  came 
into  the  Nation's  mind  from  these  now  word- 
less lips.  Their  eloquence  was  at  least  of 
grand  quality,  as  powerful  and  beautiful  as 
it  was  useful. 

The  second  apologetic  thought  is  this — 
that  no  age  calls  for  men  of  similar  mental 
and  emotional  structure,  for  men  who  will 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

all  vote  and  seek  and  hold  office  and  blend 
into  one  common  picture.  In  the  whole 
history  of  our  race  there  has  been  a  constant 
call  for  a  variety  which  would  not  permit 
any  two  leaders  to  resemble  each  other. 
Hence  biographers  can  with  difficulty  find 
parallels.  They  attempt  to  find  some  resem- 
blance between  Dante  and  Milton,  or  Savo- 
narola and  Luther,  Burke  and  "Webster,  but 
after  rhetoric  and  research  have  toiled  hard 
at  the  comparison,  there  stands  on  the  one 
hand  Savonarola,  and  on  the  other  Luther, 
with  a  measureless  and  mysterious  space  be- 
tween. Nature  never  repeats  any  form  of 
greatness.  Plato  was  not  Socrates,  Yirgil 
was  not  Homer,  Washington  was  not  Crom- 
well, Wendell  Phillips  was  not  Abraham 
Lincoln.  Thus  moves  onward  the  vast 
human  race,  lifting  up  its  vast  sons  in  her 
loving  arms,  but  with  no  duplicate  ever  of 
face,  or  brain,  or  heart.  And  thus  did  the 
march  of  events  train  and  inform  and  call 
and  adopt  and  employ  for  a  lifetime  this 
man  now  of  world- wide  fame.  His  age  cre- 
ated him  for  its  special  service. 

Nothing  more  loudly  proclaims  the  being 
of  a  God  than  His  perpetual  procession  of 
such  gifted  mortals.     Look  at  a  single  group 
114 


Wendell  Phillips 

of  them  as  springing  up  in  one  single  city ; 
Everett,  Webster,  Sumner,  Longfellow,  Emer- 
son, and  in  all  a  large  assemblage  of  titanic 
brothers,  able  by  joining  hands  to  move  the 
world.  And  to  that  one  city  add  other 
places  on  our  globe,  where  man  has  unfolded 
his  power,  places  between  London  and  old 
Athens ;  add  names  from  Pitt  to  Demos- 
thenes, and  what  holy  ground  our  earth  be- 
comes !  We  forget  the  sins  and  follies  of  the 
common  millions,  and  pass  easily  from  these 
giants  in  mind  and  morals  to  the  presence  of 
a  Creator.  Listening  to  their  spoken  words 
or  reading  their  volumes,  we  realize  at  once 
the  grandeur  of  man,  the  divineness  of  his 
exploits,  and  the  probable  glory  of  his  final 
destiny.  While  near  the  common  roaring  of 
wheels,  or  while  amid  the  perishable  decora- 
tions of  fashion,  or  in  the  midst  of  its  vivacity 
and  laughter,  man  may  seem  an  ephemeral 
insect,  but  the  scene  all  changes  when  we 
meet  the  great  in  their  ordained  paths,  their 
forms  seem  larger  than  life,  and  their  faces 
seem  to  contain  some  mysterious  proofs  of 
immortality. 

When  Wendell  Phillips  began  his  public 
life  evangelical  Christianity  did  not  look 
upon  him  as  an  ally.  It  was  thought  that 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

such  orators  as  Parker  and  Phillips  would 
lead  thousands  to  spiritual  ruin,  and  some 
clergymen  even  prayed  that  Providence 
might  remove  Theodore  Parker  from  this 
existence.  These  two  were  counted  as  the 
Church's  enemies ;  but  such  have  been  the 
changes  in  thought  and  argument  and  in  the 
questions  of  debate  that  no  doubt  the  Chris- 
tian world  rejoices  to-day  when  it  recalls  an 
eloquence  which  founded  itself  upon  the 
being  of  the  heavenly  Father,  and  the  pres- 
ence everywhere  of  a  "  higher  law."  The 
wit  and  anecdote  and  irony  and  awful 
denunciation  of  Phillips  seldom  ran  onward 
many  minutes  without  some  appeal  to  the 
existence  and  justice  of  God.  When  the  tele- 
graph flashed  to  Boston  that  Mr.  Lincoln 
had  been  elected  and  a  joyous  crowd  as- 
sembled in  Tremont  Temple  to  hear  what 
Mr.  Phillips  would  say,  he  closed  his  memo- 
rable speech  by  these  words  of  new  hope : 
"  Once  plant  deep  in  the  Nation's  heart  the 
love  of  right,  let  there  grow  out  of  it  a  firm 
purpose  of  duty,  and  then  from  the  higher 
plane  of  Christian  manhood  we  can  put 
aside  on  the  right  hand  and  left  all  narrow, 
childish  and  mercenary  considerations.  For 
us,  the  children  of  a  pure  civilization,  the 
116 


Wendell  Phillips 

pioneers  of  a  Christian  future,  it  is  for  us  to 
found  a  capitol  whose  corner-stone  shall  be 
justice,  whose  top  stone  liberty ;  within  the 
sacred  precincts  of  whose  Holy  of  Holies 
shall  dwell  One  who  is  no  respecter  of  per- 
sons, but  hath  made  of  one  blood  all  the 
nations  of  the  earth.  Crowding  to  the 
shelter  of  its  stately  arches  I  see  old  and 
young,  learned  and  ignorant,  rich  and  poor, 
native  and  foreign,  Pagan,  Jew  and  Christian, 
black  and  white,  in  one  glad,  harmonious, 
triumphant  procession." 

In  that  far-off  day  the  Church  was  not  able 
to  see  religion  where  it  could  not  see  Ortho- 
doxy, and  therefore  the  deep  Christianity  of 
Parker  and  Mann  and  Phillips  was  not  con- 
fessed ;  but  in  our  day  atheism  has  invaded 
the  field  of  eloquence  and  has  created  a  black 
cloud  upon  which  the  belief  of  Phillips  bends 
plainly  all  its  colours  of  righteousness  and 
love  and  hope.  All  that  anti-slavery  which 
echoed  through  the  Nation  for  twenty-five 
years  was  based  upon  the  laws  of  the  Al- 
mighty, and  what  confession  the  Church 
could  not  make  while  those  men  were  living 
it  will  make  at  last  over  their  graves. 

In  those  years  which  lay  between  1840  and 
1860  the  languishing  minds  of  public  men 
117 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

and  private  citizens,  of  preachers  and  writers, 
needed  plain  words,  sharp  and  rude.  It  was 
a  period  of  general  hesitation  and  weakness. 
Into  such  a  dead  atmosphere  Phillips  moved 
with  the  vehemence  of  a  storm.  No  man, 
living  or  dead,  equals  this  name  in  the  power 
of  cutting  speech,  the  power  of  statement,  of 
citation  of  instance,  of  application,  and  of 
never  bending  pursuit  of  one  end.  In  the 
hottest  days  of  the  struggle  the  eloquence  of 
Wendell  Phillips  ran  not  like  a  mad  torrent 
but  as  a  deep  stream  of  fire.  It  scorched 
what  it  touched  of  wrong  and  folly.  It  was 
well  that  not  all  were  like  him,  for  we  needed 
the  tenderness  of  Lincoln  as  much  as  this 
volcanic  flame;  but  Mr.  Phillips  performed 
his  part  in  the  drama  of  liberty,  and  per- 
formed it  well. 

It  will  become  an  impressive  picture  in 
history, — that  of  this  husband  and  wife  ded- 
icating themselves,  their  time  and  fortune 
to  one  noble  enterpise ;  so  noble  that  it  dwarfs 
the  common  ends  and  aids  of  to-day.  This 
work  displaced  their  love  of  furniture  and 
drapery  and  silks  and  broadcloth  and  fashion- 
able life,  and  arose  before  them  as  sweet  as 
the  Star  of  Bethlehem  before  the  wise  men  of 
the  East.  These  two  said  to  Liberty :  "  We 
118 


Wendell  Phillips 

have  seen  thy  star  and  have  come  to  worship 
thee,"  and  opening  their  treasures  of  intellect 
and  soul,  they  presented  unto  this  Liberty 
their  gold  and  frankincense  and  myrrh. 

Beyond  doubt  Mr.  Phillips  made  many 
mistakes,  and  was  not  as  acute  to  measure 
the  value  of  the  Union  as  to  feel  the  wrong 
of  slavery.  He  could  see  a  poor  man  or  poor 
woman  or  child  further  than  he  could  see  a 
Nation.  Demosthenes  went  around  with 
his  eloquence  to  induce  the  Greek  states  to 
unite;  he  failed,  and  Greece  was  ruined. 
Phillips  on  the  opposite  urged  the  American 
States  to  separate  ;  he  failed  and  the  Nation 
was  saved.  But  after  we  have  estimated  at 
their  full  demerit  all  the  errors  of  this  man, 
he  remains  the  purest  and  strongest  friend 
the  lower  classes  ever  possessed  on  this  side 
the  sea.  He  could  not  see  anything  ex- 
cept the  rights  of  man.  What  the  classics 
had  recorded  upon  that  subject,  the  apho- 
risms in  the  past  or  in  the  present,  in  Cicero 
or  De  Tocqueville,  in  incidents,  in  history, 
the  great  or  wandering  poems  of  any  place 
or  time  having  liberty  and  equality  in  their 
words  or  verses,  sank  into  memory  and  came 
forth  in  his  speeches  as  at  Arethusa  an  un- 
derground river  bursts  forth. 
119 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

But  all  this  brilliant  and  lofty  and  cut 
ting  oratory  has  passed  by.  It  was  over- 
thrown not  by  this  new  grave  but  by  the 
freedom  of  man  and  by  the  grand  reunion  of 
the  States.  Thus  this  eloquence  ended  with 
the  ending  of  its  cause.  "What  gratitude 
should  fill  our  hearts  that  the  Nation  needs 
no  more  such  an  oratory  of  wormwood,  but 
asks  now  for  the  literature  of  a  brotherhood 
and  for  lives  full  of  all  noble  action !  Per- 
haps in  years  not  far  away  the  South  herself 
when  she  shall  look  with  pride  upon  her  en- 
larged cities  and  industries  and  upon  millions 
as  rich  and  happy  as  her  sky  is  gentle  and 
blue,  will  count  among  her  friends  the  name 
of  him  who  once  seemed  such  a  reckless 
enemy.  The  apparent  foes  of  to-day  are 
often  the  real  friends  of  to-morrow. 

What  are  the  inferences  from  this  life? 
One  is  that  the  cause  of  man,  which  pos- 
sessed such  simplicity  in  the  former  gener- 
ation, possesses  still  all  that  physical  and 
spiritual  worth.  There  is  no  end  to  this 
service  to  society.  Washington's  camp  on 
the  Delaware  would  have  been  in  vain  had 
it  not  been  followed  by  the  schoolhouse  and 
the  church  on  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  and 
the  Lakes.  Thus,  each  step  of  a  great  man 
1 20 


Wendell  Phillips 

involves  another  step  by  a  successor.  Cicero 
said  that  a  man  who  helps  save  a  country  is 
as  worthy  as  one  who  founded  it.  Thus, 
merit  is  a  golden  chain  of  which  each  gener- 
ation is  a  link.  The  chain  falls  weak  and 
worthless  when  any  generation  makes  a 
feeble  link.  The  task  resting  upon  the  new 
men  and  new  women — all  children  when 
Parker  and  Phillips  were  in  all  their  glory 
of  wrath  and  love — is  one  of  the  same  old 
greatness,  that  of  leading  onward  and  yet 
onward  the  public,  for  which  so  many  lived 
and  died. 

A  second  inference  is  one  of  both  rhetoric 
and  religion.  The  world  calls  "Wendell 
Phillips  eloquent.  What  is  eloquence?  A 
difficult  question ;  but  we  may  approach  it  by 
indirection.  What  is  great  music  ?  Certainly 
not  a  dance  or  a  waltz,  because  the  theme 
or  emotion  is  too  childish.  A  Marseillaise 
hymn  will  illustrate  great  music  because  all 
that  pathos  and  beauty  of  sound  reposes 
upon  the  worth  and  history  of  impressive 
France.  What  is  architecture  ?  Surely  not 
the  building  of  a  bookcase  or  a  fireplace  or  a 
portico;  but  the  rearing  of  some  structure 
under  which  is  some  great  thought,  a  library, 
a  gallery,  a  kingdom,  a  worship  of  the  Al- 
121 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

mighty.  The  greater  the  idea,  the  greater 
the  architecture ;  hence  most  of  the  won- 
derful piles  of  earth  repose  upon  religion — 
two  worlds,  the  one  here  and  the  one  here- 
after. Such  thoughts  may  bring  us  near  to 
a  definition.  Eloquence  is  the  adequate 
treatment  of  a  vast  theme.  The  theme  sends 
its  greatness  up  into  the  words  as  the  falling 
waters  of  Niagara  send  into  the  woods  afar 
in  the  still  night  the  strange  outline  of  their 
thundering.  A  great  mind  treating  a  great 
theme  are  the  two  elements  needed  to  make 
eloquence.  In  Phillips  these  met.  In  "Web- 
ster they  met  for  a  time,  but  afterwards  they 
parted.  They  are  seen  joining  in  Burke  and 
Pitt.  They  combined  in  Robert  Ingersoll 
when  he  spoke  in  memory  of  the  soldiers 
and  saw  "  the  past  rise  up  before  him  like  a 
dream,"  but  they  part  when  the  same  gifted 
speaker  discourses  against  the  being  of  a 
God  and  the  hope  of  a  second  life  ;  the  great 
mind  runs  on  from  hour  to  hour,  but  the 
theme  is  wanting  and  there  is  no  oratory 
possible  in  the  case.  Eloquence  is  therefore 
a  great  treatment  of  a  great  subject. 

Phillips  saw  the  human  race  all  standing 
together  as  children  of  God.  God  had  made 
their  world  ;  had  made  the  soil,  the  seasons, 

122 


Wendell  Phillips 

the  human  hand  and  heart  and  genius,  had 
given  laws  whose  obedience  would  bring 
happiness  ;  and  from  such  a  premise  Wendell 
Phillips  moved  outward  towards  the  vision 
of  Human  Liberty  and  Equality.  His  mem- 
ory bids  us  remember  ever  that  glorious  word, 
FBEEDOM. 


123 


YI 

HENEY  WAED  BEECHEK1 

THIS  is  a  peculiar  day  [March  12,  1887]. 
It  is  the  first  Sunday  of  more  than 
fifty  years  whose  morning  has  not  called  Mr. 
Beecher  to  the  sanctuary ;  the  first  morning 
in  which  he  could  not  obey  such  a  blessed 
invitation.  In  a  series  of  spring-times  which, 
in  the  retrospect,  seems  interminable,  Mr. 
Beecher  has  responded  like  a  child  to  the 
invitations  of  sunshine,  bird,  and  blossom  to 
grasp  anew  God's  world  and  man's  world  ; 
he  has  rushed  joyfully  forth  for  more  than 
seventy  years  and  has  extracted  from  the 
seasons  colours  and  perfumes  to  be  woven 
into  his  speech.  This  spring  ends  all  the 
running  out  and  in  of  that  soul,  and  we  have 
come  upon  a  Sunday  and  a  March  which 
sing  no  longer  any  kind  of  carol  or  psalm  to 
that  heart.  In  those  budding  months,  when 
Freedom  was  attempting  to  find  a  home  in 
Kansas,  this  orator  of  the  people  was  in  our 

1  Died  March  8,  1887. 
I24 


Henry  Ward  Beecher 

world ;  in  that  March  when  Mr.  Lincoln  was 
journeying  to  Washington,  Mr.  Beecher  was 
here,  visible  as  the  continent.  It  is  no  com- 
mon event  that  we  have  now  come  to  the 
end  of  this  long,  lasting  and  brilliant  spec- 
tacle. 

Mr.  Beecher's  greatest  years  were  only 
twenty  in  number,  lying  between  1845  and 
1865.  That  group  of  twenty  years  was  made 
tremendous  by  the  great  ideas  which  lay 
beneath  them.  These  great  years  would 
have  been  thirty  had  not  his  large  themes 
died  from  fulfillment.  We  cannot  find  fault 
with  good  dreams  which  suddenly  end  by 
coming  true.  His  mind  and  body  were 
equal  to  a  longer  service,  but  England  needed 
no  longer  any  instruction  as  to  America  ; 
Kansas  needed  no  more  intercession;  the 
slaves  needed  no  more  of  the  eloquence  of 
abolition.  The  cathedral  of  liberty  had  been 
completed  and  the  architect  had  only  to  go 
inside  and  become  a  worshipper.  For  twenty 
years  this  wonderful  man  worked  for  the 
human  race,  then  he  wrought  twenty  more 
years  for  his  parish,  this  last  score  of  summers 
being  also  full  of  power,  but  not  to  be  com- 
pared with  the  time  when  the  toil  was  for 
the  Nation,  and  the  tasks  the  greatest  upon 

12*) 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

earth.  In  the  greater  period  he  seemed 
under  the  employ  of  the  people  to  plead  their 
cause  in  politics  and  religion.  His  pulpit 
moved  around  in  the  daily  press,  and  was  on 
the  banks  of  the  Ohio  and  the  Missouri, 
while,  as  the  old  Scottish  clans  sprang  forth 
from  the  bushes  when  their  chieftain  gave  a 
blast  on  his  trumpet,  the  audiences  of  this 
evangelist  issued  at  his  call  from  all  the 
hills  of  the  East  and  the  waving  grass  of  the 
West.  In  times  of  deep  distress  the  slaves' 
souls  cried  out  with  the  Scotch  poet : 

"  Ob,  for  a  blast  of  that  dread  born, 
On  Fontarabian  echoes  borne  ! " 

The  public  service  of  Daniel  Webster  did 
not  cover  so  wide  a  space  in  time ;  nor  did 
the  great  career  of  Abraham  Lincoln  take  in 
so  many  circles  of  the  sun ;  to  Mr.  Beecher 
must  be  given  the  fame  and  gratitude  for  a 
battle  long  fought,  and  well  fought,  to  the 
final  perfect  triumph. 

The  philosophy  of  his  history  was  about  of 
this  outline.  He  was  an  inborn,  vast  genius, 
so  sensitive  that  he  became  Americanized 
easily  and  deeply.  As  Angelo  under  Italy 
and  the  Medici  became  coloured  by  art,  as 
126 


Henry  Ward  Beecher 

Goethe  absorbed  all  the  sweet  odours  and  be- 
wildering fancy  of  Germany,  as  Shakespeare 
caught  all  of  his  age  in  his  wide  mental  drag- 
net, thus  Henry  Ward  Beecher  was  American- 
ized, and  from  his  brain  came  forth  an 
American  Politics  and  an  American  Religion. 
These  two  structures  arose  at  the  same  time, 
whether  side  by  side,  or  one  within  the  other, 
cannot  be  affirmed.  You  may  if  you  choose 
say  the  new  politics  was  the  external  temple, 
the  new  religion  a  golden  altar  within.  It 
will  matter  little  what  form  of  figure  the 
thought  may  assume,  the  truth  remains  that 
under  the  hand  of  this  one  workman  there 
sprang  up  a  new  form  of  both  politics  and  re- 
ligion. The  rationalism  and  humanity  which 
led  slaves  up  out  of  bondage  could  not  do 
otherwise  than  lead  God's  children  out  of  old 
Puritanism  with  its  election,  reprobation,  and 
literal  and  eternal  fire.  For  twenty  years 
without  intermission  rolled  forth  this  elo- 
quence about  justice  as  between  man  and 
man  and  as  between  God  and  man. 

The  son  inherited  from  his  father  the  dis- 
position and  the  courage  to  become  practical 
and  do  the  best  things  for  an  age  and  in  the 
best  light  of  an  age.  Lyman  Beecher  came 
into  this  world  for  the  purpose  of  seeing  it. 
127 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

His  eye  was  never  closed,  his  tongue  never 
tied.  His  speech  was  clear  and  sharp.  He 
found  drinking  whiskies  and  brandies  a 
habit  of  even  the  clergy.  The  moment  he 
saw  this  serpent's  head  he  struck  at  it.  The 
clergy  had  listened  to  it  as  did  their  weak 
mother,  but  when  Lyman  Beecher  came 
along  he  denounced  the  serpent  as  a  falsifier, 
and  began  pounding  it. 

A  few  of  his  words  will  tell  us  how  mental 
qualities  are  transmitted  sometimes  from 
parent  to  child.  When  Henry  was  a  little 
boy  the  father  said  of  intemperance :  "  Our 
vices  are  digging  the  grave  of  our  liberties 
and  preparing  to  entomb  our  glory.  We 
may  despise  admonition,  but  our  destruction 
slumbereth  not.  The  enormous  consumption 
of  ardent  spirits  in  our  land  will  produce 
neither  minds  nor  bodies  like  those  which  are 
the  offspring  of  temperance  and  virtue.  Our 
constitutions,  civil  and  religious,  have  lost 
that  domestic  discipline  and  official  vigilance 
in  magistrates  which  render  obedience  easy 
and  habitual.  Drunkards  reel  through  the 
streets  day  after  day  and  year  after  year 
with]  entire  impunity."  Such  were  the  lan- 
guage, the  clear  diction,  the  practical  gospel 
of  the  father.  The  son  would  have  taken 
128 


Henry  Ward  Beecher 

this  question  of  temperance  had  not  the  slave 
become  more  conspicuous  than  the  drunkard, 
and  had  not  the  question  of  a  temperate 
Nation  been  overwhelmed  by  the  question 
of  national  existence.  The  father  had  said 
"  Let  us  have  no  grog-shop  in  the  Eepublic  ; " 
the  son  said  "  Let  us  first  have  a  republic." 
Thus  the  clear  stream  of  healing  eloquence 
which  began  in  the  old  New  England  father 
widened  and  deepened  in  the  bosom  of  the 
child,  but  it  was  the  same  river  flowing  for 
the  healing  of  the  Nation. 

When  Henry  was  a  young  man  studying 
theology  in  Cincinnati  in  the  seminary  of 
which  his  father  was  the  theological  head, 
some  clergyman  arose  in  the  surrounding 
darkness  and  arraigned  the  father  for  hold- 
ing and  teaching  heresy.  The  heresy  lay  in 
teaching  that  the  will  of  the  natural  man 
possessed  some  freedom  of  choice ;  that 
Christ's  atonement  oifered  its  merits  to  all ; 
that  eternal  death  did  not  come  to  us  because 
of  Adam's  sin.  The  trial  was  an  effort  to 
make  the  Nineteenth  Century  conform  to  the 
barbarian  wisdom  of  the  Fifteenth,  to  make 
the  Mississippi  Valley  love  the  asceticism  of 
the  old  desert,  the  fatalism  of  the  old  East. 
In  this  trial  came  as  a  collateral  issue  an 
129 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

opinion  regarding  the  right  of  holding  prop- 
erty in  slaves.  As  Lyman  Beecher  shrunk 
somewhat  from  the  old  dogmas,  the  son 
doubled  the  emotion  and  fled  from  this  old 
schoolism,  as  he  himself  said,  "  sick  of  the 
whole  medley."  "  How  I  hated  this  abyss 
of  whirling  controversy  which  seemed  full 
of  all  manner  of  evil  things,  with  everything 
in  it,  indeed,  but  Christ !  "  "When  he  began 
to  preach  at  times  across  the  river  in  Ken- 
tucky, to  about  thirty  or  forty  people,  some 
hearer  said :  "He  was  a  smart  young  man 
but  he  harped  all  the  time  upon  one  thing — 
the  sympathy  of  Christ."  But  this  was  the 
kind  of  harping  which  the  Nation  most 
needed.  The  slave-master  needed  the  spirit 
of  Christ,  the  slave  needed  Christian  sym- 
pathy, the  sinner  needed  the  intercession  and 
persuasion  of  Christ,  the  drunkard  needed  the 
Christian  manhood.  Thus  the  young  clergy- 
man's religion  shaping  itself  in  1838  became 
from  necessity  both  a  religion  and  a  politics 
because  the  greatest  question  in  politics  in 
those  times  was  a  religious  question. 

There  is  now  a  generation  in  active  life  in 

our  land  who  did  not  see  the  uprising  of  this 

eminent  man,  and  hence  they  cannot  measure 

the  height  of  his  well-earned  fame.      Our 

130 


Henry  Ward  Beecher 

land  is  not  mourning  for  a  great  writer : 
Irving  and  Macaulay  had  more  historic  lore 
and  literary  grace  than  Mr.  Beecher  pos- 
sessed ;  Longfellow  more  and  better  poetry ; 
Lamartine  and  Coleridge  could  surpass  him  in 
describing  nature  ;  Winkelmann  and  Ruskin 
were  greater  in  delineating  merit  and  demerit 
in  art.  A  heart  or  a  mind  of  a  type  differing 
from  all  these  immortals  has  found  the  end 
in  death.  Beecher  joined  the  benevolence 
of  a  Wilberforce  to  the  eloquence  of  a  Henry 
Clay  or  a  Webster;  he  did  not  have  an 
eloquence  that  could  express  history,  but  an 
eloquence  that  could  make  it.  A  Macaulay 
could  write  a  page,  but  a  Beecher  could  help 
make  the  Nation  that  must  fill  the  page. 
He  made  facts  for  eloquence  to  record. 

When  this  influential  manhood  began,  our 
Nation  was  divided  into  two  very  hostile 
sections.  The  South  had  become  so  alarmed 
regarding  its  peculiar  property  that  a  North- 
ern man  having  a  known  love  of  liberty 
did  not  dare  travel  in  the  South.  The 
Northern  merchants  were  so  anxious  to 
retain  the  cotton  and  sugar  trade  of  the 
South  that  they  all  frowned  upon  any 
politics  which  numbered  freedom  among  its 
ideas,  and  they  would  mob  or  burn  a  church 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

which  contained  the  disciples  of  a  Christian 
liberty  and  equality.  The  students  in  Dart- 
mouth College  mobbed  free-soil  speakers ;  the 
President  sympathized  with  the  students. 
Churches,  schoolhouses,  asylums,  and  homes 
of  coloured  people  in  the  North  were  burned 
to  check  the  spread  of  hope  among  the 
Africans  in  the  South.  Twelve  buildings 
were  burned  in  New  York ;  one  large  church 
and  many  homes  in  Cincinnati ;  forty  houses 
and  two  churches  in  Philadelphia.  Pennsyl- 
vania Hall,  built  for  anti-slavery  meetings, 
was  burned  down,  along  with  its  valuable 
library,  while  Mayor  and  Council  offered  no 
protection  and  no  word  of  sympathy.  White 
men  were  imprisoned  in  Boston  for  preach- 
ing Abolitionism.  In  1837  a  slave  had  been 
burned  to  death  over  a  slow  fire  in  St.  Louis, 
and  for  denouncing  such  atrocity  the  Eev. 
Elijah  P.  Lovejoy,  of  t]iis  State  [Illinois],  was 
mobbed  to  death. 

It  was  in  such  days,  reaching  from  1830 
to  1860,  that  the  hot  oratory  of  Mr.  Beecher 
was  fabricated  like  the  bolts  of  Jupiter  in 
the  infernal  shop  of  Yulcan.  Thence  came 
also  the  equipment  of  Dr.  Cheever,  Phillips, 
Parker  and  Sumner.  The  age  sharpened 
their  speech,  condensed  their  style,  and 
132 


Henry  Ward  Beech er 

poured  in  the  heroism  and  passion  which 
make  martyrs.  Of  all  these  men  Mr.  Beeclier 
was  the  most  visible,  because  his  pulpit 
brought  him  each  week  before  the  people. 
His  logic,  his  simple  style,  his  illustrations, 
his  pathos,  his  hope,  made  his  words  fly 
straight  as  arrows  to  the  heart.  This  vast 
plea  for  universal  freedom  was  well  sustained 
for  twenty  years,  and  beginning  in  our  West 
it  reached  its  zenith  in  England,  when,  in 
1863,  he  had  to  teach  the  horrors  of  slavery 
to  the  nation  which  had  produced  Cowper 
and  Wilberforce,  but  had  forgotten  them. 
He  embodied  the  new  genius  of  the  United 
States.  He  lived  in  1840  the  life  our  Nation 
reached  thirty  years  afterwards.  Boston 
railways  built  a  mean,  plain  car  for  negroes 
to  ride  in.  It  was  called  the  "  Jim  Crow  " 
car.  Charles  Lennox  Redmond,  an  educated 
coloured  man,  entertained  in  England  by 
persons  of  rank  and  fame,  and  commissioned 
by  O'Connell  and  Father  Mathew  to  bear 
greetings  from  liberty  in  England  to  liberty 
in  America,  found  on  going  from  Boston  to 
Salem,  his  home,  that  he  must  not  take  a 
good  car,  but  must  ride  in  the  "  Jim  Crow  " 
car.  In  such  a  time  Mr.  Beecher  began  to 
ask  the  coloured  man  to  sit  on  his  platform 
133 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

and  in  his  church,  and  thus  the  "  negro  car  " 
was  met  in  equity  by  the  refuge  of  the  great- 
est pulpit  the  world  possessed. 

In  1835,  while  Mr.  Beecher  was  looking 
out  of  his  soul  window  with  his  powerful 
vision  and  tender  nature,  he  saw  in  the 
Charleston  Courier  a  notice  of  a  public  sale 
of  slaves  to  satisfy  a  mortgage  held  by  the 
Presbyterian  Theological  Seminary  of  South 
Carolina ;  he  read  also  that  the  estate  of  the 
Kev.  Dr.  Furman  was  to  be  sold  at  auction — 
"  the  farm,  a  large  theological  library,  twenty- 
seven  negroes,  some  of  them  very  prime,  two 
mules,  one  horse,  and  an  old  wagon."  In 
those  days  the  Episcopal  Bishop  of  Virginia, 
Dr.  Meade,  had  published  some  sermons  to 
slaves.  One  great  thought  was  that  they 
must  bear  well  correction,  and  even  if  cor- 
rected when  not  guilty  of  the  offense,  they 
must  bear  the  flogging  in  meekness  and 
assign  the  whipping  to  some  other  transgres- 
sion which  had  been  concealed  from  these 
masters  in  the  Lord. 

It  was  high  time  for  religion  to  reach  out 
its  hand  to  the  slave.  Oh,  the  joy  our  hearts 
should  all  feel  that  these  sad  facts  are  all  so 
far  back  of  us  that  they  must  be  sought  for 
in  the  records  of  almost  forgotten  history ! 
134 


Henry  Ward  Beecher 

The  slave  block,  the  whip,  and  the  slave  are 
gone  from  our  land  forever  ! 

Thus,  if  the  new  generation  would  make  a 
true  estimate  of  the  public  man  who  has  just 
died,  it  must  reproduce  the  scene  which  sur- 
rounded that  preacher  when  his  mind  and 
heart  were  first  espousing  the  cause  of  man 
and  Christ.  All  wonder  will  then  cease  that 
his  religion  became  simply  that  of  Christ, 
and  that  his  style  admitted  of  no  obscurity 
and  no  cowardice.  His  mind,  one  of  the 
greatest  ever  made,  came  to  an  age  which 
asked  for  simplicity,  for  logic,  for  only  prac- 
tical doctrine,  for  infinite  sympathy  and  fear- 
lessness. Mr.  Beecher  had  these  things  to 
give,  and  he  accepted  the  call  from  that 
period.  He  did  not  perform  all  the  enlight- 
ened toil  of  the  day,  but  he  performed  a 
tremendous  work,  and  now,  when  his  grave  is 
made  in  a  Nation  which  is  a  unit,  a  Nation 
dedicated  indeed  to  Liberty,  a  Nation  whose 
South  is  pressing  on  towards  industry,  wealth, 
and  education — a  Republic  whose  name  is 
now  respected  by  every  throne  and  every 
cottage — that  grave  ought  to  catch  from  the 
whole  country  mingled  flowers  and  tears. 

These  great  years  terminated  with  the 
triumph  of  freedom.  In  that  long  reach  of 
135 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

time  made  long  by  the  fullness  of  thrilling 
events,  this  pulpit  orator  had  helped  to  re- 
model the  world's  sermon,  its  gospel  and  its 
politics.  He  had  made  the  sermon  less  me- 
chanical, less  dry,  less  narrow,  less  mournful, 
more  human,  more  sympathetic,  more  orna- 
mental, more  able  to  compete  with  the 
worldly  literature  of  the  present.  He  opened 
up  the  theology  of  the  past  and  took  out  much 
superstition  and  filled  the  vacancy  with 
reason ;  he  plucked  out  sectarianism  and 
inserted  brotherhood ;  he  extracted  a  large 
part  of  hell  and  filled  the  vacancy  with 
heaven.  If  some  errors  of  judgment  lie 
scattered  over  this  long  life  they  do  not  ruin 
the  landscape  any  more  than  the  personal 
errors  of  General  Grant  ruined  his  campaign 
for  the  salvation  of  our  country.  A  great 
river  always  carries  some  driftwood  upon  its 
bosom.  If  Mr.  Beecher,  in  his  ardour  of  logic 
and  battle,  sometimes  went  beyond  the  true 
boundary  of  doctrinal  reform,  it  matters  little, 
for  the  new  pulpit  learned  from  its  founder 
the  independence  of  thought  which  can 
reject  as  readily  as  accept.  If  this  Brooklyn 
pulpit  pencilled  some  new  outlines  of  religion 
and  of  its  sermon  and  drew  them  grandly, 
the  pulpit  of  to-day  must  not  ask  him  for  all 

136 


Henry  Ward  Beecher 

the  details  to  be  put  into  the  new  discourse. 
If  he  helped  make  for  us  a  country  reaching 
in  beauty  from  one  sea  to  another,  we  should 
not  ask  him  to  plough  over  fields  for  us  and 
tell  us  what  grains  and  flowers  to  plant. 
If  heaven  sends  an  architect  great  enough  in 
brain  to  throw  a  dome  over  the  vast  room 
of  St.  Peter's,  other  workmen  should  be  glad 
to  gird  themselves  for  the  task  of  putting 
down  some  marble  floors,  under  the  dome  and 
for  the  task  of  fastening  some  marble  saints 
to  the  walls. 

But  to  recall  to-day  the  many  sides  of  this 
personal  force  and  beauty  would  consume 
many  an  hour.  His  death  does  not  sadden 
us  by  only  its  own  single,  dark  shadow,  but 
also  by  its  reminder  that  a  great  troop  of  these 
mighty  ones  is  marching  down  into  death's 
valley.  Mr.  Beecher's  death  seems  the  death 
of  a  generation.  The  Parkers,  the  Phillipses, 
the  Sumners,  the  Chases,  the  Lincolns,  the 
Grants — freedom's  thinkers,  freedom's  or- 
ators, freedom's  poets,  freedom's  statesmen, 
freedom's  soldiers — are  hurrying  away  from 
our  world,  and  are  leaving  to  new  hands 
interests  the  greatest  ever  committed  to 
mind  and  heart.  There  must  be  a  great 
Fatherland  to  which  these  citizens  repair 
137 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

because  they  have  accomplished  their  tasks 
in  the  world.  We  can  survive  their  loss  if 
the  new  multitude  will  read  their  lives,  mark 
their  motives  of  action,  their  high  politics, 
their  simple  but  divine  religion,  and  if  their 
tombs  shall  become  places  where  youth  shall 
bow  in  tears  and  deep  thoughtfulness,  and  as 
at  the  altars  of  God  make  solemn  vows  of 
lifelong  service  to  mankind. 


138 


YII 
PHILLIPS  BROOKS1 

IT  would  be  an  act  of  ingratitude  were 
this  country  to  pass  in  silence  the  death  of 
Phillips  Brooks.  All  our  churches  lay  within 
borders  of  his  bishopric.  When,  two  or 
three  years  ago,  in  a  loftiness  of  body  which 
was  only  an  emblem  of  a  loftiness  of  mind, 
this  preacher  walked  down  this  aisle  to  join 
you  in  worship,  you  all  felt  as  though  he 
were  an  elder  brother  in  your  religious 
family,  and  had  come  to  visit  his  kin.  Many 
of  you,  when  spending  a  Sunday  in  the  city 
where  this  modern  apostle  spoke,  went  joy- 
fully to  hear  words  which  you  knew  would 
fall  like  manna  from  the  sky.  At  last  each 
of  you  seemed  to  hold  some  personal  interest 
in  Phillips  Brooks  ;  and  now  to-day  we  must 
all  come  up  to  his  memory  bringing  our 
tears.  Chosen  Bishop  of  Massachusetts  in 
1891,  the  new  title  could  not  make  much 
headway  against  the  name  of  Phillips.  In 

1  Died  January  23,  1893. 
139 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

instances  not  a  few,  when  the  title  of 
"  Bishop "  is  conferred  upon  a  preacher,  it 
does  not  take  the  previous  name  of  the  man 
more  than  a  few  minutes  to  get  out  of  the 
way.  If  large  bodies  move  slowly,  the  con- 
verse ought  to  be  true  and  tell  us  why,  often, 
when  a  common  preacher  is  made  Bishop, 
his  name  as  a  human  being  instantly  dis- 
appears. In  the  case  of  this  great  friend 
who  has  bidden  us  "  good-bye,"  the  human 
being  could  not  be  easily  displaced  by  any 
office  in  the  gift  of  the  church.  As  the 
names  of  Edmund  Burke  and  William  Pitt 
and  Daniel  Webster  never  needed  any  decora- 
tion from  the  catalogue  of  epithets,  thus  the 
name  of  Phillips  Brooks  did  not  take  kindly 
to  any  form  of  prefix  or  supplement.  If  the 
peculiar  duties  of  the  office  could  have  gone 
without  carrying  a  title  with  them,  the  scene 
would  have  been  happier  ;  but  to  attempt  to 
confer  upon  Phillips  Brooks  a  title  was  too 
much  like  painting  the  pyramids. 

William  Pitt  was  called  the  "  Great  Com- 
moner," not  only  because  he  was  a  member 
of  the  "  House,"  but  because  he  was  by 
nature  a  dealer  in  the  most  universal  of  ideas 
— those  ideas  which  were  good  not  only  for 
royal  families  but  for  all  mankind.  When 
140 


Phillips  Brooks 

the  Colonies  attempted  to  secure  their  right 
from  the  Crown,  Mr.  Pitt  gave  his  elo- 
quence to  the  cause  of  the  Colonies,  because 
his  mind  could  see  the  human  race  more 
easily  than  it  could  see  the  little  group  of 
grandees  with  the  King  at  their  head.  Into 
the  mind  of  Pitt  all  the  human  rights  which 
had  been  detected  and  expressed  between  the 
Greek  period  and  the  time  of  the  Earl  of 
Chatham  crowded  to  be  reloved  and  re- 
spoken.  As  science  deals  in  the  universal 
truth  about  trees  or  stones  or  stars,  so 
William  Pitt  dealt  in  the  propositions  which 
held  true  in  all  lands. 

In  the  vast  empire  of  religions  Phil- 
lips Brooks  was  the  "Great  Commoner." 
Whether  his  mind  passed  through  the  pages 
of  the  Gospel,  or  read  as  best  it  could  the 
history  of  the  primitive  church,  or  read  the 
confessions  of  Augustine  and  saw  him  pick 
up  a  psalter  or  heard  him  pray  for  the  dead, 
or  if  he  read  all  over  the  dogmas  and  prac- 
tices of  the  Roman  Catholic  fathers,  he  al- 
ways emerged  from  the  study  infatuated 
with  only  those  truths  and  customs  which 
seemed  most  needful  to  the  character  and 
salvation  of  the  human  multitude.  He  never 
possessed  the  power  to  turn  a  little  incident 
141 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

into  a  great  doctrine.  He  could  not  by  any 
means  mistake  a  piece  of  the  cross  for  a 
potency  which  could  heal  disease  ;  nor  was  he 
able  to  look  upon  a  lighted  candle  as  playing 
any  part  in  any  form  of  natural  or  revealed 
religion.  He  stood  at  that  point  where  all 
the  Christian  sects  meet.  No  preacher  could 
go  to  Christ  without  seeing  this  brother  as 
being  in  the  same  path.  All  denominations 
walked  with  him  and  enjoyed  a  conversation 
which  made  their  hearts  burn  on  the  way. 
He  was  like  that  lofty  arch  in  Paris  towards 
which  all  the  great  streets  seem  to  run. 
When  we  think  of  the  discords  which  are 
now  sounding  all  through  the  field  of  both 
the  Catholic  and  Protestant  denominations, 
we  must  recall  Phillips  Brooks  as  the  recon- 
ciliation of  the  Nineteenth  Century. 

But  no  one  who  loves  war  can  fill  the 
office  of  such  a  "great  commoner."  That 
fame  must  rest  on  an  intellect  which  is 
wreathed  with  the  garlands  of  peace.  This 
man  did  not  fight  the  Kitualists  or  the 
Romanists  ;  he  came  forward  with  the  large 
and  positive  truths  of  religion  and  permitted 
all  that  was  false  or  little  to  die  of  neglect. 
His  pulpit  was  so  full  of  light  that  his  people 
forgot  to  bring  candles  to  the  chancel ;  the 
142 


Phillips  Brooks 

fragrance  of  the  Gospel  was  so  exceeding 
sweet  that  no  acolytes  were  needed  to  swing 
smoking  censers  in  front  of  the  holy  altar. 
We,  too,  have  sat  before  him  when  the  light 
was  all  in  his  forehead  and  the  incense  all  in 
his  heart. 

In  the  late  generations  the  Episcopal 
Church  has  been  producing  some  great  men. 
When  the  clergy  of  that  denomination  in 
England  had  become  remarkable  for  the  ab- 
sence of  learning  and  piety,  and  remarkable 
for  the  presence  of  ignorance,  indolence  and 
vice ;  when  few  who  wore  the  name  of  clergy- 
man possessed  education  enough  to  compose 
a  sermon,  and  had  not  piety  enough  to  care 
for  the  parish  whose  taxes  they  consumed, 
the  Wesleyan  reform  sprang  up.  That  effort 
was  wholly  a  contempt  for  a  dead  sanctuary 
and  an  ardent  longing  for  a  religion  like  that 
of  the  Saviour  of  men.  It  was  a  new  effort 
to  rescue  the  tomb  of  Christ  from  the  hand 
of  the  new  infidels. 

Jonathan  Swift  and  Laurence  Sterne  had 
divided  their  time  between  the  writings  for 
the  pulpit  and  writings  for  the  promotion  of 
depravity.  Sterne  published  a  few  sermons, 
but  his  literary  books  were  so  disreputable 
that  the  sermons  were  soon  forgotten  in  the 
143 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

pleasure  which  the  vulgarity  of  "  Tristram 
Shandy  "  gave  to  that  age.  It  was  the  prev- 
alence of  such  churchmen  that  compelled 
Wesley  to  rise  up  in  behalf  of  a  Christian  life 
that  bade  fair  to  be  forgotten.  Wesleyism 
did  not  contemplate  a  new  church ;  it  was 
an  uprising  against  ecclesiastical  infamy. 
Awakened  by  Wesleyism,  the  National  Epis- 
copacy underwent  a  great  reform  and  ran 
boldly  forward. 

A  pulpit  paid  by  national  taxes  easily  falls 
from  virtue,  and,  as  often  there  were  paro- 
chial schools  where  the  teacher  regularly 
drew  a  salary  from  the  state  but  had  an 
empty  schoolhouse,  so  there  were  pulpits 
which  gave  ^a  living  to  some  man  in  holy 
orders,  who  seldom  read  a  service  and  still 
less  frequently  wearied  himself  or  an  audi- 
ence with  a  discourse.  It  is  now  about  fifty 
years  since  there  came  to  the  English  Epis- 
copal Church  a  second  great  impulse.  It 
was  not  wholly  a  reform,  but  it  poured  into 
that  old  sanctuary  so  much  new  piety  and 
enthusiasm  that  it  cannot  but  be  called  a 
marked  part  of  a  forward  movement.  It 
passes  now  in  history  under  any  one  of 
several  names :  the  "  tractarian  movement," 
or  the  "  high-church  movement,"  or  the 
144 


Phillips  Brooks 

"  ritualistic  movement,"  or  "  Puseyism."  A 
few  minds,  deeply  religious, — men  who  in  the 
Seventeenth  Century  would  have  been  the 
companions  of  Fenelon — began  to  study  the 
far-off  church  of  the  fathers.  They  longed 
to  rebuild  their  plundered  and  razed  Jeru- 
salem. In  the  long  reign  of  vice  and  neglect 
even  the  beautiful  buildings  of  God  had 
become  battered  ruins.  The  house  was  as 
fallen  as  the  heart. 

These  men,  sons  of  Oxford,  went  back  in 
history  to  find  that  day  of  splendour  at 
which  the  worship  of  God  began  to  sink. 
They  shovelled  away  the  earth  from  their 
buried  Pompeii  and  soon  found  the  rich  old 
colours  upon  the  long-hidden  walls.  It  was 
a  most  valuable  labour  of  history  and  love, 
for  out  of  it  came  the  rebuilding  and  repair- 
ing of  the  churches  and  chapels  of  England ; 
and  came  also  a  living  religion  which  joined 
a  pure  belief  to  a  holy  life.  Hundreds  of 
millions  of  dollars  soon  went  into  the  re- 
building of  the  houses  of  religion  ;  but  there 
is  no  money  which  can  express  the  new 
Christianity  which  began  at  once  to  re-adorn 
the  soul. 

The  men  who  came  back  from  that  his- 
*  tone  study,  and  who  joined  in  this  pious 
145 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

renaissance,  soon  divided  into  two  classes, 
the  High  church  and  Low  church,  the  former 
comprising  those  men  who  brought  back  all 
the  rites  and  emblazonry  of  the  earlier  times, 
while  the  Low  church  became  eclectic,  and, 
feeling  that  the  present  had  outgrown  the 
emblematic  period,  asked  England  to  accept 
the  simple  religion  of  Jesus  and  His  apostles. 
The  High  church  became  enamoured  of  all 
they  discovered  and  made  valuable  old  atti- 
tudes, old  positions,  a  facing  the  east,  showy 
vestments,  priestly  offices,  candles,  incense, 
confessional,  and  many  a  genuflection. 

These  were  the  Eitualists,  with  whom  the 
sandal  of  a  Christ  was  the  essential  part  of 
the  Saviour  of  mankind.  The  Low  church 
became  equally  enamoured  only  of  that  part 
of  the  New  Testament  which  they  found  in 
the  old  lava  beds,  and,  making  of  little  moment 
the  robes  and  motions  and  incense  of  the  re- 
mote yesterday,  they  espoused  a  Christianity 
which  reached  out  a  kind  hand  towards  the 
sects  which  had  filed  down  from  Calvin  and 
Wesley.  The  High  church  used  its  relics  for 
building  a  wall  around  itself.  And  thus  it 
stands  to-day,  walled  in,  and  as  exclusive  as 
though  it  feared  that  its  friendship  might 
escape  and  be  wasted  upon  a  Presbyterian 
146 


Phillips  Brooks 

or  a  Wesleyan,  and  as  though  the  love  of 
God  might  escape  and  invade  some  meeting- 
house which  did  not  make  the  sign  of  the 
cross,  or  might  escape  and  save  some  infant 
that  was  dying  at  midnight  without  being 
baptized. 

It  cannot  in  reason  be  charged  upon  the 
Ritualists  that  they  make  religion  too  ornate. 
Man  has  not  lived  in  this  world  long  enough 
to  enable  him  to  say  that  any  part  of  life  can 
hold  too  much  of  real  beauty.  The  temperate 
zone  from  the  Gulf  to  the  St.  Lawrence  is 
beautiful  in  June,  but  it  has  never  dared 
laugh  at  the  more  abundant  blossomings  of 
the  tropics.  Many  of  us  have  had  happy 
moments  in  those  sanctuaries  where  grand 
choral  music  has  marched  up  and  down  and 
in  and  out. 

There  may  be  other  minds  which  love  to 
face  the  east,  and  other  minds  which  love  to 
see  incense  rising  as  though  it  were  carrying 
heavenward  the  burden  of  human  prayers. 
Persons  of  little  or  much  culture  must  be 
eclectics  in  the  realm  of  beauty  for  the 
church,  or  the  city,  or  the  home.  If  the 
ritualists  feel  proud  of  a  pictured  religion, 
and  ask  that  many  texts  of  Scripture  be  ut- 
tered in  material  emblems,  and  that  the 
147 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

candles  of  Solomon's  Temple  reappear  in 
the  modern  house  of  God,  they  have  a  taste 
we  are  all  bound  to  respect.  We  concede 
the  same  right  to  those  Christians  who  love 
the  rite  of  washing  each  other's  feet.  We 
confess  sympathy  with  the  ritualism  of  the 
Salvation  Army,  which  pictures  Christ  as 
the  Captain  of  their  host  and  which  follows 
Paul  in  the  dream  of  being  a  good  soldier  of 
the  Lord.  Let  ritualism  appear  where  it 
may,  in  the  High  church,  or  the  Koman 
church,  or  in  the  Salvation  Army,  it  must 
pass  along  as  a  lawful  form  and  variation  of 
human  taste.  Its  harmfulness  has  of  late 
years  come  from  minds,  which,  instead  of 
admiring  and  enjoying  Ritualism,  have  de- 
scended to  the  worship  of  it — the  worship  of 
such  fugitive  and  unimportant  accessories — 
which  made  it  difficult  for  a  Bishop's  crown 
to  reach  a  forehead  which  loved  the  sublime 
spirituality  of  Jesus  more  than  it  loved  the 
fleeting  pageantry  of  perfumes  and  colours, 
and  which  loved  the  face  turned  towards 
all  the  sects  in  their  hour  of  prayer  more 
than  he  loved  a  genuflection  or  a  face  turned 
towards  the  east. 

In  the  east  we  see  only  the  sun,  but  all 
around  this  man  lay  the  hopes  and  griefs  of 
148 


Phillips  Brooks 

the  human  soul,  more  tremendous  than  a 
thousand  suns.  If  any  proof  were  wanting, 
to  show  that  Ritualism,  when  idolized,  turns 
men  who  might  have  been  scholars  and 
thinkers  and  orators  into  half-childish 
natures,  busy  in  the  ornaments  of  an  altar, 
like  children  around  the  Christmas  tree,  that 
proof  may  be  read  in  the  difficulties  which 
lay  between  Phillips  Brooks  and  the  high 
office  for  which  he  seemed  to  have  been 
born.  In  itself,  Ritualism  may  be  a  lawful 
form  of  religion,  but  history  shows  that  it 
may  be  cultivated  until  it  excludes  what  it 
once  ornamented,  and  ends  by  becoming 
only  the  tropical  efflorescence  of  human 
vanity.  A  deep  attachment  to  Ritualism 
may  be  taken  as  a  good-bye  bidden  by  the 
young  preacher  to  the  height  and  depth  of 
thought  which  belongs  to  the  pulpit  in  all 
the  great  period  of  church  life.  A  high 
Kitualism  is  a  most  perfect  and  most  alluring 
means  for  keeping  the  mind  of  the  clergyman 
within  the  limits  of  a  perpetual  childhood. 
A  Ritualist  ought  to  admire  his  ceremony  as 
a  man  loves  flowers — happy  when  the  blos- 
soms are  near,  but  happy  also  in  the  barren 
fields  of  winter  or  in  Sahara's  leafless  sand. 
If  one  thinks  of  the  High  churchmen  and 
149 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

the  Low  churchmen  as  visiting  the  old  past 
to  find  once  again  the  lost  church  of  the 
fathers,  one  must  see  the  Ritualist  entering 
our  age,  not  only  bringing  much  of  the 
apostolic  doctrine,  but  also  as  having  his 
arms  full  of  candles,  of  priestly  robes,  of 
curtains  fastened  by  "  loops  of  blue  each  to 
its  sister,"  and  full  of  "  badger-skins  dyed 
red";  and  the  same  spectator  must  see  the 
Low  churchman  coming  from  that  act  of  ex- 
huming, carrying  in  his  hands  the  words  and 
deeds  and  life  of  our  Lord.  You  may  all,  if 
you  wish,  admire  many  a  High  churchman 
acting  in  his  peculiar  office,  but  for  this 
absent  Bishop  you  cannot  but  cherish  a 
greater  admiration  and  a  deeper  love.  He 
reached  out  his  hand  to  all  men,  and  so  sin- 
cere was  he  that  his  hand  always  pointed  out 
the  path  of  his  heart. 

"When  the  heart  studies  the  bygone  years, 
it  ought  to  esteem  great  in  the  past  that 
which  it  wishes  to  come  true  in  the  future. 
"We  ought  to  look  deeply  at  the  yesterdays 
in  order  to  catch  the  image  of  to-morrow. 
And,  as  the  soul  of  Phillips  Brooks  longed  to 
see  a  Christian  unity  and  equality,  longed  to 
see  a  civilization  which  should  resemble  the 
life  of  the  Son  of  Man,  he  gathered  up  from 
ISO 


Phillips  Brooks 

the  fathers  the  doctrines  which  tended  to 
make  noble  men  and  to  join  them  into  a 
wide  brotherhood.  The  Ritualists  seem,  by 
some  error  of  locality,  to  have  exhumed  the 
Mosaic  age ;  the  Low  churchmen  seem  to 
have  laid  open  to  view  a  more  recent  arena 
— that  of  Jesus. 

In  his  wanderings  in  the  old  religious 
world,  this  lamented  mortal  recalls  that 
Dante  who,  in  his  great  dream,  drew  near  a 
holy  mountain,  which  lifted  up  its  form  not 
far  from  the  Paradise  of  his  God.  The 
devout  wanderer  did  not  see  any  candles  or 
vestments  or  studied  posturing ;  he  saw  no 
"apostolic  succession."  The  world  around 
him  was  too  great  to  be  in  harmony  with  the 
rites  and  emblems  of  some  fleeting  year. 
One  by  one  the  angels  came  over  him,  but 
each  one  was  chanting  some  benediction 
which  had  once  fallen  from  the  lips  of  the 
Master.  No  sooner  had  the  words  sounded, 
"Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart,"  than  on 
came  some  other  winged  choristers  saying, 
"Blessed  are  the  merciful."  To  the  same 
Italian  worshipper  at  last  a  great  chorus 
chanted  the  Lord's  Prayer,  all  amplified  like 
a  tune  in  music  which  breaks  up  into  four 
parts; 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

"  Oh,  Thou  Almighty  Father  !    Who  dosfc  make 
The  heavens  Thy  dwelling,  not  in  bounds  confined, 
But  that  with  love  iutenser  there  Thou  viewest 
Thy  primal  effluence,  hallowed  be  Thy  name  ! 
Join  each  created  being  to  extol 
Thy  might,  for  worthy  humblest  thanks  and  praise 
Is  Thy  blessed  Spirit.     May  the  Kingdom's  peace 
Come  unto  us,  for  we,  unless  it-  come, 
With  all  our  striving  thither  tend  in  vain." 

These  are  the  words  which  our  great 
American  "  Commoner "  heard  chanted  in 
the  lofty  cathedrals  of  the  past,  and  these 
are  the  words  he  wished  to  hear  sounding  in 
the  greater  aisles  and  corridors  of  the  future. 
He  extracted  greatness  from  the  past  because 
he  wished  history  to  be  only  another  name 
for  his  soul's  hope.  His  mind  conceived  of  a 
service  and  an  anthem  too  great  to  be  read 
or  sung  by  his  limited  sect.  His  ritual  must 
include  a  hundred  Books  of  Common  Prayer ; 
his  vestments  must  include  the  robes  of  a 
Louis  XIY,  the  habit  of  an  exiled  Quaker, 
and  the  seamless  coat  of  Jesus.  He  found 
his  universal  and  perpetual  harmony  in  the 
words  :  "  Blessed  are  the  pure  in  heart." 

If  you  would  find  a  reason  for  the  con- 
fessed eloquence  of  this  eminent  Christian, 
you  must  begin  by  studying  the  advantage 
found  in  a  mind  which  loved  the  whole  hu- 
152 


Phillips  Brooks 

man  family,  and  then  loved  all  the  great 
truths  which  hold  the  people's  happiness. 
Eloquence  is  the  utterance  of  great  truths  in 
a  manner  worthy  of  the  truths.  But  there 
can  be  no  such  utterance  without  passion. 
This  man  was  capable  of  loving  even  the 
negro  slave.  When  those  old  days  of  trial 
were  brooding  over  the  Nation,  Phillips 
Brooks  flamed  up  on  the  slaves'  side.  After 
the  slaves  were  free  he  travelled  a  thousand 
miles  to  plead  in  this  city  for  the  cause  of 
the  education  and  full  citizenship  of  those 
homeless  Africans.  Only  a  little  group  of 
our  citizens  appeared  in  the  large  hall,  for 
the  orator  was  young  in  his  fame  and  the 
city  was  young  in  its  power  to  appreciate 
such  an  appeal  from  heart  to  heart.  None 
the  less  did  the  speech  run  like  molten  iron 
from  a  furnace,  thus  teaching  us  who  listened 
that  oratory  is  great  truth  uttered  with  great 
passion.  Gesture  and  tone  are  insignificant. 
It  is  necessary  for  this  truth  and  passion 
to  enjoy  the  noble  accessories  of  language 
and  style.  It  is  difficult  for  a  great  mind, 
great  heart,  great  language,  and  good  style, 
all  to  meet  in  one  human  being.  The  dis- 
tance between  orators  is  therefore  very  great. 
Only  a  few  come  to  us  each  hundred  years. 
153 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

In  Bishop  Brooks,  all  these  ingredients 
mingled.  He  had  by  nature  and  by  study 
mastered  the  one  language  of  his  race.  It 
became  at  last  the  hundred  gates  of  his  soul's 
Thebes.  At  these  portals  the  riches  of  his 
age  passed  in  and  out.  He  used  no  dead 
words,  no  old,  worn-out  phrases,  at  which 
the  brain  of  the  listener  sinks  to  sleep.  His 
words  were  all  alive,  and  they  came  singing 
like  the  string  and  arrows  of  the  wonderful 
bow  of  Ulysses.  His  words  came  too  rapidly 
indeed,  but  his  ideas  were  instantly  seen  and 
instantly  felt  to  be  true.  Each  word  was 
distinct,  like  a  single  note  in  some  rapid 
melody,  an  inseparable  part  of  a  beautiful 
song. 

What  a  simplicity  there  is  in  all  such  high 
speech !  because  the  theme  is  so  large  and  so 
absorbing  that  it  shames  away  the  most  of 
artifice,  and  makes  the  little  art  of  the  piece 
wholly  invisible.  If  those  final  words  as- 
cribed to  the  Bishop  were  indeed  spoken,  his 
mind  was  not  greatly  under  a  cloud,  for  the 
simple  sentence  whispered  to  a  servant : 
"  You  need  not  care  for  me  longer ;  I  am  go- 
ing home,"  is  made  of  the  kind  of  words 
which  earth  needs  when  it  is  fading,  and 
which  the  final  home  asks  for  when  it  is 
154 


Phillips  Brooks 

opening  its  gates  to  a  noble  spirit,  once  a 
pilgrim  here.  Death  always  asks  for  simple 
language,  because  its  mystery  and  sadness 
and  hope  are  all  the  ornamentation  the 
speaker  or  listener  can  bear.  Ah  !  sad  loss 
such  a  being  to  all  the  churches  of  our  coun- 
try !  He  was  a  man  so  symmetrical  and  so 
fitted  to  all  the  hours  and  need  of  our  land 
that  the  office  of  bishop  went  to  him,  not  to 
add  anything  to  his  fame  or  power,  but  to 
be  itself  honoured  and  exalted.  It  was  the 
office  that  went  to  be  crowned.  As  an  Epis- 
copal bishop  he  was  much  less  than  as  the 
great,  free  orator  of  the  Christian  philosophy. 
But  the  terms  "  bishop  "  and  "  commoner  " 
are  both  made  sacred  now  by  the  sudden  ad- 
vent of  death. 

It  is  certain  that  this  name  will  long  re- 
main the  centre  of  a  magic  power.  The 
Baptist,  with  his  close  communion,  cannot 
but  be  impressed  with  that  scene  of  brother- 
hood which  lies  so  outspread  in  this  church- 
man's life ;  the  Unitarians  can  also  look 
towards  Phillips  Brooks,  to  know  how 
rationalism  of  a  high  school  may  be  joined 
to  the  most  marked  spirituality  and  piety ; 
the  restless  and  debating  Presbyterians  may 
study  him,  to  learn  what  peace  and  useful- 
155 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

ness  they  can  find  in  a  Christianity  many 
times  simpler  than  their  Confession  of  Faith  ; 
to  him  may  the  Low  church  look  for  per- 
petual vindication ;  and  to  him  should  all  the 
young  ritualistic  clergy  turn,  not  to  abandon 
their  pictured  and  highly  coloured  worships, 
but  to  mark  how  the  pulpit  of  a  Christian 
teacher  and  thinker  towers  above  the  swing- 
ing of  censers  and  the  adjustment  of  robes 
and  the  graceful  bowing  of  the  body  in  its 
acts  of  devotion.  He  should  warn  them 
against  the  folly  of  a  half -wasted  life. 

While  we  are  thus  standing  by  such  a 
grave,  the  inquiry  comes  from  many  whether 
Kitualism  and  Komanism  are  to  displace  the 
simpler  churches  and  come  into  almost 
despotic  power.  Of  this  result  there  seems 
little  probability.  The  Broad  church  is 
young,  but  Kitualism  is  as  old  as  the  world. 
It  ruled  in  the  Mosaic  age.  It  ruled  in 
India,  Egypt,  and  in  all  great  nations  before 
the  Son  of  Man  came,  and  then  entering 
Christianity  it  filled  with  its  pageant  all 
temples  up  to  the  days  of  Luther. 

The  Broad  church  has  been  in  the  world 
only  half  a  century.  In  that  brief  period 
what  master  minds  it  has  produced  !  It  is 
nothing  else  than  the  old  Christianity  of 


Phillips  Brooks 

«•:,  -i 

rites  and  doctrines  smitten  by  the  deeper 
thought  of  these  later  generations.  That 
reason  which  has  created  the  modern  world 
will  most  surely  drive  religion  towards  a 
holy  life,  a  simple  piety  and  a  wide  brother- 
hood. Romanism  will  be  smitten  by  the 
same  hand,  and  one  by  one  shall  fall  from  it 
the  follies  and  vices  which  that  Church 
gathered  up  by  passing  through  the  middle 
centuries  of  ignorance  and  sin.  That  new 
thought,  which  has  transformed  despotisms 
into  republics  and  slaves  into  the  citizens  of 
England  and  France,  will  not  spare  the  old 
life  and  ideas  of  the  temple  of  prayer.  The 
antiquity  of  Bornanism  and  Kitualism  will 
not  protect  them.  Many  things  thousands 
of  years  old  have  died  in  this  century.  It  is 
the  great  graveyard  of  antiquity  and  the 
beautifully  draped  cradle  of  a  new  youth. 

When  it  is  said  that  reason  will  smite  the 
old  churches,  it  is  not  meant  that  any  violence 
will  come.  Heaven  keep  violence  far  away 
from  all  those  Roman  and  Protestant  altars 
where  our  parents  said  their  prayers !  Reason 
will  smite  them  only  as  it  smote  the  valley 
of  the  Mississippi  and  covered  it  with  civi- 
lization ;  smite  them  only  as  the  sun  smites 
the  fields  in  April  and  makes  them  bloom ; 
157 


The  Message  of  David  Swing" 

smite  them  as  reason  touched  Phillips  Brooks 
when  he  was  young  and  made  his  heart 
warm  with  love  and  his  forehead  white  with 
pure  truth. 


YIII 
DECOEATION  DAY 

TO-MOEEOW  the  graves  of  the  soldiers 
are  to  be  decorated  by  the  hands  of 
memory  and  esteem.  Many  thousand  per- 
sons will  pay  thus  the  tribute  of  personal 
love.  Many  a  mother  will  visit  the  spot 
where  her  son  sleeps;  many  a  man  and  a 
woman,  now  in  middle  life,  will  visit  the 
grave  where  their  father  rests.  He  marched 
to  war  when  they  were  little  children.  They 
remember  some  noise  of  drums  and  some  sad 
parting ;  they  remember  the  body  came  back 
and  that  the  neighbours  met  to  hold  a  funeral 
service.  To-morrow  old  letters  will  be  re- 
read and  old  photographs  restudied  with 
many  a  tear. 

A  few  days  before  the  battle  of  Stone 
Eiver  a  young  husband,  a  colonel  of  cavalry, 
left  Cincinnati  in  haste,  to  resume  his  place 
with  his  troopers.  He  foresaw  a  great  battle. 
He  wrote  a  good-bye  note  to  his  wife,  saying 
that  '  a  great  battle  was  near ;  he  might  fall ; 
159 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

she  must  not  wear  mourning ;  she  must  plant 
some  vines  by  his  grave,  and  go  on  as  though 
in  the  world  of  a  great  and  kind  God.'  In 
a  few  days  that  awful  meeting  of  armies 
came,  and  this  colonel  was  among  the  slain. 
Thus  tens  of  thousands  of  graves  will  to- 
morrow be  visited  by  hearts  full  of  an  affec- 
tion which  no  years  can  abate.  Many  will 
say :  Here  my  father  sleeps ;  here  my  brother, 
here  my  cousin,  here  my  classmate,  turns  to 
dust.  But  as  that  generation  of  weepers 
will  soon  all  be  silent  as  the  soldiers,  will 
soon  overtake  them  in  the  great  halting- 
place,  this  Decoration  Day  will  soon  rest  upon 
the  gratitude  which  a  Nation  owes  to  its  de- 
fenders and  upon  the  admiration  all  noble 
minds  cherish  for  men  who  were  heroic 
enough  to  imperil  their  life  for  their  country. 
Each  soldier's  monument  in  the  cities  and 
cemeteries  of  the  land  will  be  decorated  to- 
morrow ;  not  in  the  name  of  personal  friend- 
ship only,  but  also  in  the  name  of  that  intel- 
ligence and  self-denial  which  could  fight  and 
die  for  the  welfare  of  society.  Even  when 
the  public  shall  not  know  even  the  names  of 
the  entombed  soldiers  it  will  cast  down  its 
offerings  to  their  virtues. 
It  adds  much  to  the  beauty  of  to-morrow 
160 


Decoration  Day 

that  all  the  wars  of  our  Nation  have  been 
honourable.  Exception  must  be  made  in  the 
case  of  the  war  with  Mexico  in  1846.  That 
conflict  with  a  neighbour  was  brought  about 
by  the  Southern  clamour  for  more  slave 
territory.  Texas  must  be  annexed  with  or 
without  the  consent  of  Mexico.  The  Union 
would  at  once  be  dissolved  unless  the  South 
were  granted  this  new  era.  With  a  view  to 
such  annexation,  Mr.  Polk,  of  Tennessee,  was 
elected  President  and  soon  came  annexation 
and  war.  The  other  struggles — that  of 
1776,  of  1812  and  of  1861— were  founded 
upon  great  principles  of  right,  and  they 
stand  in  history  all  ennobled  by  the  calmest 
thought,  truth  and  honour.  Out  of  these 
three  struggles  our  Nation  extracted  those 
principles  and  that  power  which  make  it  at 
last  such  a  home  for  so  many  millions. 
Whoever  will  to-day  make  a  survey  of  this 
Nation  and  mark  the  blessings  and  oppor- 
tunities it  confers  upon  its  citizens  will  not 
fail  to  whisper  his  gratitude  to  all  those  men 
who  gave  up  their  lives  in  those  fields  of 
battle. 

Those  dark    days  which  came    between 
1860  and    1865   were  gloomy  beyond  the 
realization  of  any  of  those  who  were  then 
161 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

children.  The  loyal  States  were  full  of  all 
the  sorrows  which  wars  entail.  Values  were 
all  unsettled,  literature,  education,  and  all 
art  had  come  to  a  halt.  The  heart  was  full 
of  depression  lest  England  might  join  in  the 
Confederacy. 

Defeats,  carnage,  blunders,  great  expense, 
new  calls  for  troops,  mourning  in  all  cities 
and  villages  found  a  procession  of  ideas  as 
gloomy  as  the  ideal  march  of  death.  Thou- 
sands of  the  noblest  men  in  the  North  were 
so  depressed  by  the  awful  surroundings  that 
they  said  to  each  other  in  private :  "  Perhaps 
it  would  have  been  better  to  let  the  slave 
States  withdraw  in  peace."  The  outcome  of 
war  was  as  much  hidden  in  1862  as  it  was  in 
1776.  However  patriotic  and  brave  a  man 
may  be,  his  heart  can  easily  become  the 
victim  of  doubts.  It  is  easy  now  for  our 
young  generation  to  look  back  upon  the  last 
war  and  see  it  as  only  a  long  march  of  an 
invincible  army.  An  army  led  by  men  who 
did  not  know  defeat  and  who  had  little  to 
do  except  shout  victory  behind  a  running 
enemy.  So  Franklin  in  later  life  could  look 
back  with  pleasure  to  the  time  when  he  was 
poor  and  homeless,  but  it  was  not  in  his 
power  when  he  had  only  the  loaf  of  bread  to 
162 


Decoration  Day 

look  forward  with  much  of  romantic  poetry. 
Thus  our  new  millions  can  look  back  upon 
the  war  of  the  Union  and  see  a  fine  procession 
of  statesmen  marching  towards  universal 
liberty,  but  those  who  marched  and  those 
who  led  thirty  years  ago  could  not  gaze  upon 
any  such  a  scene,  there  being  a  thick,  black 
curtain  between  them  and  the  future. 

There  was  in  the  North  and  in  Canada  a 
party  formed  in  the  name  of  a  disgraceful 
peace.  They  talked  of  conventions  of  the 
Middle  States ;  talked  of  a  new  separate  West, 
and  never  used  any  language  about  the 
Union  except  that  of  despair.  These  men 
once  sent  word  from  Canada  to  Mr.  Lincoln 
that  they  were  empowered  to  negotiate  a 
peace.  Patriots  feared  that  there  would  be  a 
guerilla  conflict  for  twenty  years.  The  sud- 
denness with  which  the  war  at  last  ended,  the 
sudden  acceptance  of  the  defeat  by  the  entire 
South  came  to  the  whole  world  as  a  great 
surprise.  The  soldiers  whose  names  we  are 
to  honour  not  only  fought  for  their  country, 
but  they  fought,  suffered,  and  died  amid 
great  gloom.  They  could  not  see  a  final 
perfect  triumph — they  could  only  toil  and 
hope.  To  suffer,  to  be  wounded,  to  die  on 
the  eve  of  an  assured  victory  might  be  a 

163 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

form  of  blessedness ;  but  heavy  were  the 
hearts  which  had  to  endure  agony  without 
being  able  to  read  the  future  of  the  contest. 

A  Greek  orator  who  had  to  speak  at  Athens 
after  a  very  disastrous  battle  said  that  the 
true  soldier  never  dies  defeated,  for,  go  as 
the  battle  may,  there  is  victory  always  in  his 
soul.  It  must  have  been  thus  with  the  de- 
fenders of  our  Union.  They  must  have  been 
so  full  of  the  sense  of  right  and  duty  that  in 
prison  or  in  the  hospital  or  dying  on  the  field, 
their  minds  must  have  been  filled  with 
triumph.  In  one  of  the  darkest  hours  of 
the  whole  strife  those  disunionists  who  had 
assembled  in  Canada  asked  permission  to 
come  to  Washington  and  submit  to  the 
President  some  terms  of  peace.  Mr.  Lincoln 
sent  word  that  he  would  give  them  an  audi- 
ence only  in  case  their  plans  involved  the 
restoration  of  the  Union  and  the  abolition  of 
slavery  ;  there  could  be  no  peace  on  any  other 
terms.  Thus  with  Mr.  Lincoln,  however 
dark  the  battle-field,  there  was  always  a 
victory  in  his  heart. 

It  must  have  been  thus  with  the  rank  and 

file  in  their  last  hour.     Sinking  away  upon 

the  bloody  field,  while  their  eyes  were  taking 

a  last  look  at  the  picture  of  wife  and  child 

164 


Decoration  Day 

or  father  or  mother,  those  noble  men  must 
have  felt  within  the  triumph  of  the  most 
divine  right.  The  cause  was  one  of  the 
greatest  for  which  arms  ever  clashed. 

The  Greeks  and  Komans  often  made  war 
only  through  vanity,  or  else  that  they  might 
plunder  a  rich  neighbour.  Napoleon  marched 
600,000  men  against  Moscow  only  because 
the  Czar  of  Russia  would  not  close  the  Russian 
harbour  to  English  ships.  Here  in  America 
the  contest  was  for  the  preservation  of  the 
best  nation  ever  founded  in  the  whole  history 
of  man,  a  nation  whose  principles  had  been 
selected  from  the  wisdom  of  all  ages  and 
which  had  been  made  into  a  State  by  the 
wisest  and  best  of  all  men,  principles  which 
for  nearly  a  hundred  years  had  brought  to 
millions  of  citizens  the  most  possible  of  pros- 
perity and  happiness. 

But  this  Nation  so  famous  for  its  men  and 
ideas  contained  one  dark  spot.  It  contained 
a  blemish  which  France,  Germany,  England 
and  Russia  would  not  permit  to  soil  their  fame. 
At  last  the  hour  came  in  which  the  question 
must  be  settled  whether  the  blemish  must  be 
continued  and  the  Nation  destroyed,  or 
whether  the  Nation  should  be  preserved  and 
the  spot  erased.  Thus  came  a  war  not  of 
165 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

vanity  or  conquest,  but  a  struggle  to  save 
the  wisdom  of  ages.  By  a  singular  mental 
misfortune  there  was  a  group  of  Confederate 
citizens  who  loved  slavery  more  than  they 
loved  freedom ;  they  had  reached  the  singular 
wisdom  which  could  love  the  spots  on  the  sun 
more  than  they  loved  the  sun,  loved  the 
worm  in  a  rose  more  than  they  loved  the 
rose  itself. 

When  it  is  remembered  that  under  the  war 
lay  such  a  noble  groundwork  of  right  and 
truth  it  ought  not  to  be  difficult  for  us  to 
feel  that  our  Nation's  dead  died  in  peace, 
even  on  the  fields  of  defeat ;  it  ought  not  to 
be  difficult  for  us  to  cast  flowers  upon  their 
tombs.  We  ought  to  feel  that  no  soul  can  be 
prolific  enough  in  blossoms  to  equal  the  moral 
excellence  of  the  day. 

All  the  happiness,  all  the  success,  all  the 
splendour  of  the  present  combine  to  enhance 
the  honour  of  the  soldier's  grave.  The  mind 
can  easily  make  here  and  now  a  picture  of 
certain  beautiful  forms  going  forth  to-mor- 
row to  honour  the  patriotic  dead.  The  form 
of  Keligion  happy  in  her  new  truth  and  new 
morality  ;  the  form  of  Politics,  set  free  from 
an  old  wrong ;  Education  widened  and  en- 
riched ;  Art  quickened  and  exalted  ;  Litera- 
166 


Decoration  Day 

ture  newly  inspired  ;  the  South  awakened  to 
personal  industry  and  full  of  new  dreams; 
the  South  and  North  holding  hands  in  friend- 
ship : — these  graceful  figures  can  be  seen  as 
hovering  like  blest  angels  over  the  soldiers' 
dust  and  saying  in  simple  gratitude,  "  Soldier 
of  the  Nation,  we  thank  thee  with  full 
heart." 

All  the  prosperous  cities  and  towns  which 
are  now  redeeming  the  South,  the  growing 
unity  of  language,  literature,  social  life  and 
political  doctrine  and  sentiment,  come  to  us 
from  those  battle-fields  whose  memory  re- 
turns in  each  May.  It  would  have  been 
more  in  harmony  with  all  religion  and  all 
philosophy  could  the  establishment  of  the 
Union  and  the  abolition  of  slavery  have 
come  by  peaceful  ways  and  means,  but  since 
this  was  impossible,  unable  now  to  amend 
the  past,  we  must  go  back  to  all  those  bloody 
grounds  and  bless  them  that,  out  of  such  suf- 
ferings, they  grew  for  an  age  so  many 
flowers.  In  the  name  of  a  noble  Nation,  all 
united  from  Gulf  to  Lake  and  from  sea  to  sea, 
in  the  name  of  the  advance  of  all  that  is 
good,  in  the  name  of  inventions,  discoveries, 
sciences,  arts,  a  happier  womanhood,  a  hap- 
pier childhood,  a  nobler  manhood,  we  this 
167 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

day  declare  fragrant  and  precious  all  those 
flowers  which  send  their  roots  down  into  our 
soldiers'  dust.  The  events  which  have  fol- 
lowed the  dreadful  war  have  justified  its 
years  of  deep  sorrow.  The  bitterness  has 
all  passed,  the  days  of  peace  have  come. 

ISTo  one  who  attempts  to-day  to  speak  in 
the  name  of  both  religion  and  the  soldier 
will  dare  pass  by  the  fact  that  the  African, 
although  free  from  the  chains  of  a  slave,  is 
still  the  victim  of  a  wide-spread  injustice. 
He  is  still  too  often  treated  as  an  animal  not 
worthy  of  human  rights.  Against  the  con- 
tinuance of  the  old  slave-driving  theory,  all 
honourable  men,  white  and  black,  must 
think  and  act ;  but  at  the  same  time  our  col- 
oured citizens  must  give  the  South  credit  for 
having  made  a  very  great  progress  in  its 
opinions  and  conduct.  A  new  era  is  coming, 
but  all  men  must  lament  that  it  comes  in 
slowly. 

Our  public  men  are  simply  the  creatures 
of  the  age.  Our  Presidents  move  very 
slowly  for  fear  they  may  walk  away  from 
that  ballot-box  which  is  to  contain  the  war- 
rant of  a  second  term.  Our  only  hope  lies 
in  such  an  awakening  of  the  people  as  shall 
at  last  make  justice  to  the  African  citizen  a 
1 68 


Decoration  Day 

matter  of  life  and  death  to  the  men  who 
want  high  office.  We  must  make  opinions 
for  years  and  years  before  we  can  make 
great  statesmen. 

The  "second  term"  must  be  abolished, 
and  then  must  come  one  more  reform,  that 
of  making  to  a  common,  scheming,  soulless 
politician  even  a  first  term,  impossible.  A 
President  of  such  a  Nation  ought  not  to  be  a 
tame  follower  of  old,  beaten  political  paths. 
He  ought  to  be  a  humane  man,  a  lover  of 
even  the  poor ;  capable  like  Christ  of  bless- 
ing the  multitude  with  new  beatitudes 
straight  from  heaven.  Since  Mr.  Lincoln 
there  has  been  no  president  who  revealed 
any  marked  humane  sentiments.  Exception 
may  well  be  made  in  the  person  of  President 
Hayes.  He  did  what  he  could  for  the  free- 
dom of  the  South.  He  would  have  done 
more  had  not  his  term  been  full  of  the 
troubles  which  were  yet  strong  and  fresh 
from  the  war  of  the  rebellion.  But  with 
Mr.  Hayes  humanity  disappeared.  However 
great  in  many  particulars  the  Presidents  may 
have  been,  no  one  of  them  has  been  visibly 
affected  by  the  fact  that  the  negro  in  the 
South  cannot  vote  in  safety  and  is  liable  any 
day  to  be  imprisoned,  whipped,  hanged,  or 
169 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

burned.  Had  Henry  Bergh  been  President 
in  any  one  of  the  late  Presidential  periods, 
he  would  have  found  some  means  of  check- 
ing that  cruelty  which  so  shames  our  civili- 
zation. But  literature,  the  daily  press,  the 
pulpit,  all  good  men  and  women,  North  and 
South,  will  have  to  be  active  some  years  yet 
before  a  refined  civilization,  one  of  love  and 
justice,  will  be  able  to  trample  to  dust  that 
stereotyped  soul,  the  calculating  political 
character,  which  is  so  utterly  and  forever 
heartless. 

The  same  slow  progress  which  gave  the 
African  liberty  must  go  onward  and  clothe 
him  with  every  form  of  human  right.  The 
soldiers  whose  graves  are  so  sacred  must  be 
ornamented  not  only  by  floral  offerings  but 
also  by  the  ever-growing  happiness  of  the 
whole  people.  Our  troops  did  not  fight  and 
die  for  these  May  lilies,  roses  and  laurels, 
but  they  did  for  humanity,  and  their  most 
worthy  Decoration  Day  will  come  in  only 
that  spring  which  shall  say  to  their  disem- 
bodied souls :  "  Every  human  being  in  the 
Union  is  living  in  the  fullness  of  confessed 
and  secured  right." 

Towards  such  a  noble  result  we  must  all 
struggle  with  daily  industry  and  with  daily 
170 


Decoration  Day 

hope.  As  the  churches  are  now  attempting 
to  get  Calvinism  out  of  their  creeds,  and  are 
no  longer  willing  to  disgrace  the  Deity  by 
making  Him  select  a  few  men  for  happiness 
and  doom  others  to  wrath,  so  must  we  elimi- 
nate such  a  philosophy  from  the  Nation  and 
save  it  from  the  disgrace  of  electing  white 
men  to  mercy  and  dooming  black  men  to  the 
jail  and  rope  and  malicious  fire.  Let  not 
those  at  least  rail  at  Calvinism  who  conduct 
a  Nation  in  the  name  of  a  most  infamous 
reprobation. 

The  right  has  this  fact  to  encourage  it — 
that  the  American  public  has  always  sooner 
or  later  made  its  moral  force  felt  in  law  and 
conduct.  Its  words  of  truth  and  pleadings 
have  never  been  lost.  The  daily  press,  the 
magazines  and  reviews,  the  graver  literature, 
the  schoolhouse,  the  pulpit,  have  always 
compelled  the  darkness  to  flee  and  light  to 
come.  These  voices  can  once  more  penetrate 
the  clouds  and  usher  in  a  happier  day  to 
souls  that  have  been  wronged  for  three  hun- 
dred years.  If  not  many  years  ago  there 
was  a  vast  multitude  of  persons  who  died  on 
bloody  fields  for  human  rights  and  happiness, 
is  there  not  now  living  a  still  more  numerous 
army  who  will  live  in  flowery  states,  in  a 
171  • 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

blossoming  world,  for  an  advance  of  the 
same  right  and  happiness?  Will  you  not 
all  live  for  principles  for  which  your  brothers 
died?  The  South  is  herself  beginning  to 
speak  and  act  in  behalf  of  the  rights  of  the 
African.  Such  wise  words  and  deeds  are 
worthy  of  being  reprinted  all  through  the 
land  and  of  being  expanded  into  full  elo- 
quence. 

Let  us  pass  from  this  plea  for  the  African 
and  take  one  more  view  of  the  soldier's 
grave.  Each  year  lessens  the  discord  be- 
tween the  North  and  South  and  increases 
the  harmony.  "What  our  country  now  needs 
is  not  a  host  of  recriminating  historians,  but 
a  host  of  brotherly  souls  bound  up  in  a  new 
future.  Never  was  adequate  justice  done  the 
judgment  and  feelings  of  Charles  Sumner 
when,  soon  after  the  close  of  the  rebellion, 
he  moved  in  the  Senate  that  "  no  name  of 
any  battle-field  of  the  war  be  placed  upon 
the  Nation's  flag  and  that  the  Capitol  should 
contain  on  its  walls  no  picture  of  a  battle  in 
which  citizens  fought  citizens."  The  mo- 
tion was  ridiculed  by  many  Northern  Sena- 
tors and  editors  of  that  day,  but  the  lapse  of 
years  has  shown  the  idea  just  and  beautiful. 
No  American  ever  surpassed  Charles  Sunmer 
172 


Decoration  Day 

in  the  conception  and  defense  of  human 
rights,  but  he  was  incapable  of  worshipping 
war  between  brothers.  He  gladly  washed 
all  such  battle  pictures  from  his  remem- 
brance. His  spirit  ought  to  become  rapidly 
the  spirit  of  our  Nation  in  its  entire  extent. 
Hate  must  be  transient,  love  eternal. 

That  breadth  of  mind  and  soul  which  made 
Charles  Sumner  so  impressive  is  moving  over 
the  South  and  is  liable  to  adorn  that  warm 
heart  whose  love  and  philosophy  were  re- 
pressed by  the  presence  and  use  of  human 
bondage.  There  remains  nothing  to  prevent 
a  oneness  of  idea  from  prevailing  between 
Chicago  and  Memphis  and  Atlanta. 

A  Confederate  officer  in  an  essay  contrib- 
uted recently  to  a  literary  magazine  of  Dallas, 
Texas,  having  summed  up  his  sad  memories 
of  the  war,  adds  these  words :  "  Peace  and 
happiness  reign  supreme  over  a  free  people. 
Our  hearts  are  great  enough  to  love  our 
whole  country,  North  and  South,  mountain, 
river  and  plain.  The  gulf  breezes  waft  soft 
messages  from  orange  bowers  to  Northern 
hills  and  apple  blossoms.  .  .  .  We  are  all 
Americans.  We  are  all  patriots.  Thus  let 
it  be  forever."  Thus  this  brilliant  essay  of 
J.  E.  Cole  reveals  the  fact  that  the  graves  of 
173 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

the  soldiers  imply  a  national  unity  of  princi- 
ples and  a  wide-spread  oneness  of  heart. 
Many  years  ago  the  words  "impending 
crisis  "  and  "  irrepressible  conflict "  were 
upon  the  lips  of  all  statesmen.  How  could 
slavery  and  liberty  dwell  in  the  same  house  ? 
All  we  need  know  to-day  is  that  the  land  is 
full  of  soldiers'  graves  and  those  words  are 
gone.  There  is  no  "  impending  crisis,"  the 
"irrepressible  conflict"  has  passed  away. 
The  blood  of  our  brothers  has  purchased  the 
unity  and  happiness  of  a  great  people.  One 
justice,  one  truth,  one  duty,  one  hope,  are 
slowly  advancing  as  though  like  morning 
sunbeams  they  were  anxious  to  flood  all 
fields  with  one  light. 

When  to-morrow  you  shall  look  at  monu- 
ments and  graves  of  the  known  and  the 
nameless  dead,  tears  ought  to  fill  your  eyes 
at  the  thought  of  the  thirty  years  in  which 
those  hearts  have  been  absent  from  the 
scenery  and  experience  of  this  life.  On 
your  account  they  are  absent  from  your 
world.  But  such  tears  meet  the  demand 
which  the  soldier's  tomb  makes  upon  the 
soul  of  every  living  citizen.  When  Pericles 
attempted  to  comfort  the  Athenians  at  the 
graves  of  their  soldiers  he  told  them  that  at 
174 


Decoration  Day 

best '  earth  was  the  sepulchre  of  a  vast  mul- 
titude of  illustrious  men.  It  was  only  a  large 
grave.'  But  this  is  the  comfort  of  an  iron- 
like  fate.  It  is  not  adequate  to  our  greater 
age.  We  need  a  richer  philosophy.  We 
must  say  that  through  these  scattered  hill- 
ocks, with  their  May  ornaments  of  grass  and 
garlands,  there  comes  to  us  the  voice  of  God 
and  man,  earth  and  sky  saying,  Catch  from 
these  braves  their  spirit ;  take  up  the  banners 
of  truth  their  dying  hands  let  fall ;  as  they 
made  a  greater  nation,  so  go  ye  on  to  make 
the  grander  Kepublic  a  greater  art,  a  greater 
learning,  a  greater  justice,  a  greater  friend- 
ship, a  greater  religion.  The  souls  of  the 
soldiers  are  not  in  these  graves.  They  are 
far  away  on  diviner  heights.  So  those  who 
to-morrow  shall  strew  lilies  must  at  once 
turn  away  from  those  heaps  of  dust  and  look 
up  towards  nobler  heights  in  religion  and  in 
all  the  blessed  forms  of  love  and  righteous- 
ness. Such  death  must  be  the  inspiration  of 
life. 


175 


IX 
THE  DUTY  OF  THE  PULPIT 

In  the  Hour  of  Social  Unrest 

IT  would  be  a  happiness  to  all  of  us,  could 
we  meet  to-day  having  in  our  hands 
branches  from  the  woods  or  shells  from  the 
shore  where  we  may  have  recently  attempted 
to  find  pleasure  and  rest :  but  the  events  of 
the  last  few  months,  and  the  gloom  of  the 
future,  have  stolen  from  prairie  and  seacoast 
their  long-found  charm. 

The  trees  and  the  waters  have  for  many 
weeks  past  sighed  over  the  infirmities  of  our 
country. 

To  find  the  images  of  greatness,  we  have 
been  compelled  to  look  into  the  past.  When 
President  Cleveland  intervened,  and,  per- 
haps, saved  this  city  from  being  plundered 
and  burned,  some  men  feared  to  thank  him 
for  such  a  quick  intervention.  July  must 
deal  very  gently  with  criminals  who  are  to 
vote  in  November. 

176 


The  Duty  of  the  Pulpit 

Not  since  1861  has  the  sky  been  as  dark 
as  it  is  to-day.1  We  have  unconsciously  built 
up  within  this  generation  two  black  passions 
— the  one,  the  feeling  that  money  is  the  only 
thing  worth  living  for,  and  the  other,  that 
work  must  hate  capital.  Thus  the  level  of 
all  society  is  lowered — the  moneyed  class  by 
its  worship  of  gold,  the  other  class  by  its  life 
of  hate.  While  wealth  has  inflamed  its  pos- 
sessors and  worshippers,  there  has  lived  and 
talked  an  army  of  angry  orators,  whose  pur- 
pose has  been  to  make  the  men  who  work  in 
the  vineyard  hate  the  men  who  pay  them  at 
nightfall.  In  such  circumstances,  the  vine- 
yard will  soon  be,  first,  a  battle-field,  and 
then,  a  desert. 

It  would  seem  that  all  the  Christian  clergy, 
Catholic  and  Protestant,  and  all  the  ethical 
teachers  should,  this  autumn,  enter  into  a 
new  friendship  with  these  two  discordant 
classes,  and  preach  to  both  alike  the  gospel 
of  a  high  humanity.  The  churches  and 
pulpits  of  all  grades  possess  a  vast  influence. 
They  do  not  hold  any  "  key  to  the  situation," 
or  any  "  balance  of  power  " ;  they  cannot 
open  and  close  the  gates  of  the  earthly 
heaven  and  hell  for  America ;  but  they 

September,  1894. 
177 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

possess  an  enormous  moral  force — a  power 
that  should  no  longer  be  exhausted  upon 
little  theological  issues  and  practices.  All 
the  intellectual  and  spiritual  resources  of  the 
pulpit  should  be  exhausted  in  the  effort  to 
advance  human  character.  Society  needs 
speedy  and  large  additions  to  both  its  right- 
eousness and  its  common  sense. 

What  saved  the  country  from  a  great 
calamity  last  July  was  the  fact  that  the 
schoolhouse,  the  church,  and  the  press,  of 
the  last  fifty  years  had  quietly  created  an  in- 
telligence large  enough  to  stand  between  the 
people  and  their  ruin.  When  the  new  kind 
of  autocrat  ordered  all  the  railway  wheels 
between  the  two  oceans  to  stop,  and  had 
sat  down  to  enjoy  the  silence  of  locomotives 
and  iron  rails,  there  were  so  many  noble  and 
educated  men  in  the  railway  service  that  the 
voice  of  the  autocrat  was  the  only  noise  that 
died  out.  It  was  not  President  Cleveland 
alone  that  came  between  us  and  a  great 
calamity.  He  was  aided  by  the  high  com- 
mon sense  of  a  large  majority  of  the  railway 
employees.  The  railway  union  of  working 
men  was  not  formed  for  a  career  of  mingled 
cruelty  and  nonsense,  but  that  men  might 
help  each  other  in  honourable  ways  and  in 
178 


The  Duty  of  the  Pulpit 

hours  of  great  wrong  and  need.  The  union 
was  not  formed  in  order  that  railway  men 
might  become  beggars,  at  a  time  when 
their  work  was  bringing  almost  a  barrel 
of  flour  a  day  for  each  family.  With  wages 
at  two  dollars  a  day  and  wheat  at  half  a 
dollar  a  bushel,  the  strike  and  trouble  of 
July  were  not  only  unreasonable  but  ma- 
licious. 

Nearly  all  clergymen  stand  close  to  the 
people.  They  are  reared  in  the  philosophy 
that  gives  bread  to  the  hungry.  The  gospel 
of  Christ  is  one  of  infinite  sympathy.  Men 
who  from  choice  enter  the  ministry  of  the 
Judaean  religion  are  never  so  happy  as  when 
they  see  the  labourer  sit  down  under  a  good 
roof  to  a  table  spread  with  abundant  food. 
In  the  life  of  the  average  clergyman,  a  large 
part  of  his  thought  and  public  utterance, 
and  actual  labour  and  sympathy,  is  given  to 
what  is  called  the  common  people.  The 
upper  classes  need  little.  There  is  nothing 
in  the  millionaire  that  appeals  to  the  heart. 
The  rich  are  so  self -adequate  that  they  may 
draw  admiration  and  esteem,  but  not  sym- 
pathy. The  heart  of  the  pulpit  is  freely 
given  to  the  middle  and  lower  classes.  In 
all  time,  the  common  people  have  attracted 
179 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

to  themselves  the  most  of  both  philosophy 
and  poetry,  but  the  attention  and  the  affec- 
tion they  won  in  the  former  times  seem 
weak,  compared  with  the  love  that  has  been 
flung  to  them  in  the  passing  century.  Under 
the  influence  of  this  sympathetic  philosophy, 
wages  have  been  advanced,  humane  laws 
have  been  passed,  the  facts  of  health  and 
disease  have  been  studied,  and  new  action 
has  come  with  new  light ;  and  when  into 
such  an  age  of  both  inquiry  and  action  there 
is  projected  such  a  scene  as  that  of  last  July, 
the  spectacle  does  not  belong  to  reason  or 
humanity,  but  only  to  despotic  ignorance  and 
ill  will. 

Labour  may,  and  even  must,  organize ;  but 
the  labourers  must  organize  as  just  and  law- 
abiding  men,  country-loving  men,  and  not  as 
bandits.  The  depressing  memory  of  last 
July  is  not  to  be  found  in  the  fact  that 
labour  was  organized,  or  wholly  in  the  fact 
that  it "  struck."  The  strike  was,  indeed,  per- 
fectly destitute  of  common  sense,  but  the 
chief  disgrace  of  the  hour  lay  in  the  willing- 
ness of  free  men  to  obey  a  central  despot  and 
join  in  such  acts  of  wrong  and  violence  as 
would  have  disgraced  savages.  Benevolence 
is  humiliated  that  it  must  feed  and  clothe 
1 80 


The  Duty  of  the  Pulpit 

men  who  will  break  the  skull  or  kick  to 
insensibility  the  brother  who  wishes  to  earn 
bread  for  his  hungry  family. 

It  was  discovered  last  July  that  some  of 
thejabour  unions  employ  fighting  men  to  go 
to  and  fro  to  hunt  up  and  knock  down  those 
who  do  not  join  in  the  folly — those  who  are 
satisfied  with  their  wages  or  who  must  work. 
Not  every  workman  is  a  trained  pugilist. 
So  men  are  hired  to  spend  the  day  or  the 
week  in  pounding  men  who  are  noble  and 
industrious.  The  cry  "  I  am  an  American  " 
does  not  avail  as  much  in  Chicago  as  the 
words  "  I  am  a  Roman  "  availed  Paul  in 
Jerusalem.  When  Paul  said  he  was  a  Roman, 
the  mob  fell  back ;  but  when  Mr.  Cleveland 
said,  "  These  pounded  men  are  Americans," 
it  was  thought  by  some  that  he  was  not  the 
proper  person  to  make  the  remark.  And  yet 
our  pulpits  have,  for  fifty  years,  been  trying 
to  make  Christians,  and  our  schools  and 
printing-presses  have  been  trying  to  endow 
these  Christians  with  sense. 

Quite  a  number  of  clergymen  have  banded 
together  to  preach  the  gospel  of  personal 
righteousness  ;  that  Christianity  is  Christ  in 
human  life,  Christ  in  society,  Christ  in  money, 
and  Christ  in  work.  We  preachers  must  all 
181 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

come  to  that  definition  of  the  church.  This 
height  of  thought  will  make  all  dizzy  for  a 
time ;  but  the  quality  of  our  old  Christianity 
will  not  meet  the  demands  of  a  republic.  A 
despotism  may  be  sustained  by  Catholics  or 
Protestants,  but  a  republic  must  be  sustained 
by  men. 

Labour  guilds  are  as  old  as  work  and 
capital ;  but  one  kind  of  labour  guild  is  new, 
and  let  us  all  pray  that  it  shall  not  live  to 
become  old.  In  the  darkness  of  the  Four- 
teenth Century,  the  young  working  man 
looked  happily  forward  to  the  day  when 
he  could  be  admitted  into  the  guild  of  his 
craft.  His  mother  and  sisters  looked  after 
his  habits,  that  his  character  might  be  above 
reproach.  The  approach  to  the  initiation 
day  was  much  like  a  youth's  approach  to  his 
first  communion.  ISTew  clothes,  a  feast,  new 
conduct,  new  inspiration,  new  hopes  came 
with  the  hour  that  placed  this  new  name 
upon  the  noble  roll.  But  this  was  in  the 
dark  ages.  In  the  close  of  the  Nineteenth 
Century,  when  the  heavens  and  earth  are 
ablaze  with  the  light  of  Christ,  when  love 
for  man  is  written  everywhere  in  letters  of 
gold,  when  congresses  of  religion  meet  to 
teach  us  that  all  men  are  brethren,  then  the 
182 


The  Duty  of  the  Pulpit 

men  who  join  a  guild  shake  a  bludgeon  at 
their  brother  and  are  advised  by  a  reckless 
king  to  buy  a  gun.  Some  men  call  this 
phenomenon  a  commercial  disturbance.  It 
is  nothing  of  the  kind.  In  the  South  Sea 
Islands  it  is  barbarism ;  among  the  carnivo- 
rous animals  it  is  called  ferocity;  in  our 
civilized  land  it  is  infamy. 

It  seems  evident  that  Christianity  asks 
labourers  to  be  organized  into  societies.  If 
a  church  may  be  organized  that  Christians 
may  help  each  other  and  confer  with  each 
other  about  all  things  that  pertain  to  the 
church,  why  may  not  carpenters  and  railway 
men  form  a  union  that  many  minds  and 
many  hearts  may  find  what  is  best  for  the 
toilers  in  their  field  ?  The  word  "  Church  " 
means  a  gathering  of  people,  and  if  the 
exigencies  of  religion  may  demand  an  as- 
sembly, so  may  the  exigencies  of  a  trade. 
But  none  of  these  assemblages  can  sustain 
any  relations  whatever  to  violence  or  any 
kind  of  interference  with  the  liberty  or 
rights  of  man.  For  a  vast  group  of  railway 
men  to  sign  away  their  personal  liberty  and 
permit  some  one  man  to  order  them  around 
as  though  slaves,  is  a  spectacle  pitiful  to  look 
upon ;  but  to  band  together  for  interference 
183 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

with  the  rights  of  man  is,  not  a  mental 
weakness,  but  a  crime. 

It  is  a  great  task  for  a  labour  guild  to 
study  and  fully  learn  what  are  the  facts  and 
the  needs  of  itself.  Before  men  quit  their 
employers,  they  should  all  know  the  reason 
of  the  move.  After  men  have  been  idle  for 
a  winter  and  have  come  to  regular  work  and 
regular  pay,  if  they  hasten  to  strike,  their 
reason  ought  to  be  so  large  that  the  whole 
world  can  see  it.  But  we  do  things  differ- 
ently in  enlightened  America.  Our  men 
hasten  to  throw  down  tools  and  their  wages, 
and,  at  last,  when  starving,  they  ask  some 
committee  to  make  a  microscopical  search  for 
the  reason  of  the  distress.  And,  before  this 
reason  is  known,  eminent  men  express  them- 
selves as  in  full  sympathy  with  it.  All  the 
railway  wheels  in  America  were  ordered  to 
stop  out  of  sympathy  with  a  reason  which  a 
committee  was  looking  for  with  a  micro- 
scope. The  railways  were  giving  work  to 
four  millions  of  people.  This  work  was  all 
"  called  off  "  by  a  man  with  some  telegraphic 
blanks,  and  the  poor  families  supported  by 
the  Northwestern  Railroad  lost  two  hundred 
thousand  dollars,  the  workmen  of  the  Illinois 
Central  one  hundred  and  sixty-four  thousand 
184 


The  Duty  of  the  Pulpit 

dollars,  of  the  Milwaukee  and  St.  Paul  one 
hundred  and  seventy-five  thousand  dollars, 
and  thus  on  to  the  millions — all  which  loss 
was  ordered  from  sympathy  with  men  who 
were  getting  each  six  hundred  dollars  a  year. 

Labour  unions  will  waste  their  work  by  the 
millions  of  dollars'  worth,  and  will  soil  their 
name  and  ruin  the  sympathy  of  literature, 
art  and  religion,  as  long  as  they  trust  their 
cause  to  hot-headed,  ignorant,  illogical  men. 
Labour  should  have  for  its  chieftains  our 
Franklins  or  our  John  Stuart  Mills.  These 
should  be  its  guide.  If  our  land  possesses  no 
such  minds,  then  are  we  on  the  eve  of  untold 
misfortune.  When  labour  shall  have  Frank- 
lins for  its  walking  delegates,  it  will  enter 
upon  a  new  career.  Capital  will  confer  with 
it,  congresses  of  working  men  will  meet,  and 
men  will  find  the  wages  of  each  toiler  and  of 
each  new  period ;  but  nothing  can  be  done 
by  a  foolish  despot  with  a  club.  Yes,  some- 
thing can  be  done — the  Republic  can  be 
hopelessly  ruined  through  a  ruined  manhood. 

The  wages  and  whole  welfare  of  the 
labouring  man  have  been  much  advanced  in 
twenty-five  years,  but  the  gun  and  club  have 
taken  no  part  in  this  progress.  Conference, 
thought,  reason,  benevolence,  have  accom- 
185 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

plished  the  blessed  task,  and  they  will  do  much 
more  when  they  are  invited  to  help  our  race. 
Moral  power  makes  laws.  It '  shames  the 
guilty.  It  dissolves  adamant.  It  founded  the 
Christian  Church.  It  has  civilized  whole 
races ;  it  has  emancipated  the  mind ;  it  has 
freed  slaves. 

It  may  easily  be  remembered  that  a  London 
man  a  few  years  ago  unveiled  the  wrongs 
inflicted  upon  poor  young  girls.  This  in- 
justice did  not  need  to  be  examined  by  a 
microscope.  The  heart  of  London  became 
aflame  with  indignation.  The  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  and  the  Archbishop  of  West- 
minster, Cardinal  Manning,  the  Bishop  of 
London,  Sir  William  Harcourt,  and  Sir 
Robert  Cross,  flung  their  minds  and  hearts 
into  the  cause,  and  the  Parliament  passed  a 
new  law  for  a  longer  and  diviner  protection 
of  girls. 

To  many  labour  unions  all  talk  of  moral 
power  carries  the  weight  of  only  nonsense. 
The  moral  influence  theory  is  indeed  defect- 
ive, but  it  is  the  only  one  within  human 
reach.  If  a  dozen  men  should  resolve  that 
they  have  rights  to  seats  in  a  street  car,  their 
theory  seems  good ;  but,  on  getting  into  one 
of  these  vehicles,  if  they  find  the  seats  all 
1 86 


The  Duty  of  the  Pulpit 

taken,  unless  they  can  club  those  persons 
out  of  those  seats,  the  theory  of  those  dozen 
unionists  is  very  defective.  When  a  man  re- 
solves that  he  ought  to  sit  down  and  then 
stands  up,  his  resolution  is  defective.  But 
what  makes  it  defective  ?  The  rights  of  the 
man  who  is  sitting  down.  So  when  a  set  of 
men  resolve  that  they  will  work  only  for 
four  dollars  a  day,  they  hold  an  imperfect 
platform,  because  of  the  rights  of  the  men 
who  will  work  for  three  dollars.  Should  a 
clergyman  resign  his  pulpit  because  his  people 
will  not  pay  him  six  thousand  dollars  a  year, 
his  theory  is  incomplete  indeed,  unless  he  can 
kill  the  preachers  who  will  come  for  five 
thousand  dollars.  But  he  must  go  to  and 
fro  with  his  imperfect  theory.  It  is  spoiled 
by  the  rights  of  other  preachers.  Thus, 
against  all  labour  unions  not  strictly  moral, 
the  laws  of  the  human  race  rise  up.  The 
rights  of  mankind  oppose  them.  All  society 
is  founded  upon  the  rights  of  man — not  of 
the  man  who  works  for  three  dollars  a  day, 
but  of  the  man  also  who  works  for  one  dollar 
or  for  any  sum  whatever.  Any  force  in 
a  labour  union  means  anarchy.  A  guild, 
without  violence,  may  be  imperfect,  but, 
with  violence,  it  is  infamous. 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

"Where  would  our  city  and  perhaps  our 
Kation  have  been  in  this  September,  had  not 
the  labourers  in  the  town  of  Pullman  and  in 
the  whole  land  been  for  the  most  part  law- 
abiding?  The  churches  may  confess  the 
rashness  of  the  strike,  but  we  must  forgive 
the  mistakes  of  those  who  respected  the  rights 
of  mankind  and  the  laws  of  the  land.  Many 
toilers  were  so  patient  and  law-abiding  as  to 
give  promise  of  being  worthy  citizens  of  a 
great  country.  What  all  those  workmen 
need  is  a  leadership  worthy  of  their  cause  or 
their  flag. 

The  flag  of  labour  is  a  perfectly  glorious 
one — too  grand  to  be  carried  by  a  fanatic  or 
a  simpleton  or  a  criminal.  Capital  is  nothing 
until  labour  takes  hold  of  it.  A  bag  will 
hold  money,  but  a  bag  cannot  transform 
that  money  into  an  iron  road,  a  bridge,  a 
train  of  cars,  an  engine.  An  armful  of  bonds 
did  not  fling  the  bridge  over  the  arm  of  the 
sea  at  Edinburgh ;  the  bonds  of  England 
did  not  join  the  Mediterranean  to  the  Ked 
Sea ;  gold  did  not  erect  St.  Peter's  at  Eome ; 
nor  did  it  lift  up  any  of  the  sublime  or  beau- 
tiful things  in  any  art.  Money  came  along 
and  attempted  to  buy  the  canvases  of  Angelo, 
but  it  did  not  paint  them.  The  millions  of 
188 


The  Duty  of  the  Pulpit 

people  who  came  here  last  summer  did  not 
come  to  see  the  millions  of  money,  but  to  see 
what  labour  had  done  with  money,  and  they 
saw  a  great  spectacle.  What  domes  !  "What 
arches !  What "  Courts  of  Honour  " !  What 
canals !  What  statues !  What  machines ! 
What  pictures!  What  jewels!  What 
thought !  What  taste  !  What  love !  And 
yet  the  whole  scene  was  the  matchless  em- 
blazonry of  labour.  As  God  manifests  Him- 
self in  the  external  objects  of  earth  and  in 
the  millions  of  stars,  thus  man  speaks  by  his 
works,  and  in  our  world  labour  sits  enthroned.- 
Capital  is  a  storehouse  of  seeds ;  labour  is 
their  field,  their  soil,  their  rain,  and  their 
summer  time.  Over  a  potency  so  vast  and 
godlike,  only  Wisdom  herself  should  preside. 
If  our  age  has  any  great  men — men  whose 
hearts  are  warm  and  pure,  and  whose  minds 
are  large  as  the  world, — it  should  ask  them 
to  preside  over  the  tasks  and  wages  of  the 
labourer.  Anarchy,  Crime,  and  Folly  should 
be  asked  to  stand  back.  Those  three  demons 
may  be  called  to  the  front  when  our  labourers 
are  seeking  for  poverty  and  disgrace. 

You  have  all  heard  of  the  hostility  of 
capital  to  labour.     But  there  is  no  special 
truth  in  the  phrase.     Labour  is  just  as  hostile 
189 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

to  labour.  The  whole  truth  is  this  :  Man  is 
not  anxious  to  spend  his  money.  There  is  a 
saying  that  "  the  fool  and  his  money  are  soon 
parted,"  but  we  have  not  reached  the  maxim 
that  labour  loves  to  make  presents  to  labour. 
Did  you  ever  know  a  blacksmith  who  was 
happy  to  pay  large  bills  to  the  plumber  ? 
Are  the  carpenters  anxious  to  have  their 
tailors  advance  the  price  of  a  suit  of  clothes  ? 
Are  the  "  walking  delegates  "  for  the  plaster- 
ers anxious  to  pay  the  farmer  a  dollar  for 
wheat  ?  If  reports  be  true,  there  are  labour- 
ing men  in  the  West  who  are  so  hostile  to 
the  labour  of  their  brothers  that  they  are 
going  to  buy  most  all  needful  things  in  the 
shops  of  England. 

Thus  labour  is  as  great  an  enemy  of  labour 
as  it  is  of  capital.  The  hostility  between 
labour  and  money  is  a  mischievous  fiction, 
gotten  up  by  dreamers  and  professional 
grumblers,  who  wish  to  ride  into  office  or 
fame  by  parading  a  love  for  the  multitude. 
This  false  love  ought  soon  to  end  its  destruc- 
tive career.  Last  June  and  July  it  cost  the 
working  men  many  millions  of  dollars.  Had 
some  walking  delegates  of  Christianity  told 
these  men  that  labour  and  capital  are  eternal 
friends — that  labour  is  the  language  of 
190 


The  Duty  of  the  Pulpit 

money,  the  body  it  assumes,  the  life  it  lives, 
— our  summer  would  have  been  full  of  indus- 
try and  honour.  How  could  Krupp  hate  the 
men  who  are  doing  his  will  in  massive  iron  ? 
How  could  Field  hate  the  men  who  were 
laying  his  cable  in  the  ocean  ?  The  Church 
must  help  stamp  all  our  industrial  falsehoods 
into  the  dust,  and  must  wave  over  all  men 
the  flag  of  brotherhood. 

So  rapidly  has  friendship  grown  between 
capital  and  labour,  that  a  law  is  now  before 
the  British  Parliament  looking  to  a  com- 
pensation to  each  labourer  or  his  family  for 
injuries  the  working  man  may  have  received 
in  the  execution  of  his  task.  "When  passed, 
this  law  will  each  year  give  ten  millions  of 
dollars  to  the  working  class  of  the  three 
islands.  This  law  is  not  coming  from  the 
"  club  "  or  "  gun,"  but  from  the  Christianity 
of  England. 

This  new  humane  philosophy  has  counted 
all  the  toilers  who  have  been  injured  in  their 
toil.  It  saw  fifty-seven  men  killed  while 
building  the  Forth  bridge,  and  one  hundred 
and  thirty  die  among  the  wheels  and  machines 
used  in  digging  the  Manchester  canal.  This 
new  kindness  has  studied  longer  and  found 
that  of  each  ten  thousand  men  employed  on 
191 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

the  railways,  fourteen  are  killed  in  a  year 
and  eighty  badly  crippled.  In  the  long  past 
there  was  no  love  that  counted  these  dead  or 
injured  men.  A  dead  labourer  was  as  a  dead 
horse  or  a  dead  dog.  The  riots  and  destruc- 
tion and  barbarity  of  last  July  set  back  all 
this  new  friendship,  and  made  brotherly  love 
despair  of  the  present  and  future.  The  Evil 
One  hath  done  this.  Endless  abuse,  endless 
complaint,  endless  violence,  openly  taught 
anarchy,  have  succeeded  in  making  work  the 
enemy  of  money.  You  can  recall  the  Bible 
story  of  the  person  who  came  at  night  and 
sowed  tares  among  the  springing  wheat. 

The  fact  that  the  United  States  army  had 
to  hasten  hither  to  save  life  and  property 
cannot  all  be  charged  upon  the  immigrants 
in  our  land.  We  have  of  late  years  been 
producing  a  group  of  Americans  who  care 
nothing  for  right  or  wrong,  and  who  have 
become  the  masters  of  all  the  forms  of  abuse 
and  discontent.  It  is  evident  that  the  influx 
of  anarchists  ought  to  cease,  but  we  must 
not  forget  the  crop  our  Nation  is  growing  out 
of  its  own  soil.  All  the  cities  seem  uniting 
to  make  law  ridiculous.  The  alien  who  will 
sell  his  vote  for  a  few  shillings  is  not  so  low 
as  the  American  who  will  prefer  these  votes 
192 


The  Duty  of  the  Pulpit 

to  principles.  The  immigrant  may  act 
through  the  absence  of  patriotism,  for  his 
new  land,  but  the  American  acts  through 
total  depravity. 

The  foreigners  are  generally  manipulated 
by  political  confidence  men,  who  are  home- 
made. 

The  general  theme  of  this  morning  is  too 
large  for  the  narrow  limits  of  an  essay,  but 
it  is  possible  for  us  to  feel  that  our  great 
Christian  organism  ought  to  be  applied,  from 
these  dark  days  onward,  to  the  making  of 
the  Christlike  character.  The  Church,  Cath- 
olic and  Protestant,  has  lived  for  all  other 
causes  ;  let  it,  at  last,  live  for  a  high  intelli- 
gence and  for  individual  righteousness.  Lit- 
erature and  science  and  the  public  press  will 
help  the  Church.  All  these  wide-open  and 
anxious  eyes  must  perceive  clearly  that  our 
national  and  personal  happiness  must  come 
from  the  study  and  obedience  of  that  kind 
of  ethics  which  became  so  brilliant  in  Pales- 
tine. Our  Jewish  friends  need  not  call  it 
Christian,  and  our  rationalized  minds  need 
not  call  it  Divine.  "What  is  desirable  and 
essential  is,  that  its  spirit  shall  sweep  over 
us.  Called  by  any  name,  it  is  a  perfect  sal- 
vation for  our  country  and  for  each  soul. 
193 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

The  time  and  money  the  Church  has  given 
to  a  metaphysical  inquiry  and  teaching  have 
been  a  total  loss.  In  the  great  college 
courses,  there  are  studies  in  classic  language, 
and  in  high  mathematics,  that  strengthen 
the  intellect;  but  no  such  virtue  has  ever 
been  found  to  flow  from  the  theological 
studies  of  the  Church.  For  hundreds  of 
years  the  mind  has  found  in  these  enigmas 
its  slow  doctrine.  There,  thousands,  even 
millions,  of  thinkers  have  found  their  grave. 
There,  the  colossal  mind  of  even  a  Pascal 
grew  confused  and  weak.  There,  great  men 
have  lost  their  blessed  earth  while  they  were 
fighting  over  the  incomprehensible.  God 
did  not  give  man  this  globe  that  it  might  be 
made  a  desert  or  a  battle-field,  but  that  it 
might  be  made  the  great  home  of  great  men. 
As  often  as  creeds  and  dogmas  have  de- 
tached the  mind  from  humanity,  literature 
and  art  and  science  have  rushed  in  to  save 
the  precious  things  of  society.  But  these 
agencies  have  done  this  only  by  carrying,  in 
prose  and  verse  and  science,  the  laws  of  love, 
duty  and  justice,  by  delineating  man  as  a 
brother  of  all  men  and  as  a  subject  in  the 
mighty  kingdom  of  law  and  love.  In  an 
age  and  in  a  republic  marked  by  an  amazing 
194 


The  Duty  of  the  Pulpit 

effort  to  turn  all  things,  all  days,  all  life,  into 
gold,  our  pulpits  must  make  a  new  effort  to 
reveal  and  create  man  the  spiritual  being, 
man  temperate,  man  studious,  man  a  lover 
of  justice,  man  the  brother,  man  Christlike. 
The  same  science  that  is  seeking  and  finding 
the  sources  of  wealth,  and  that  is  filling  the 
young  mind  with  longings  to  become  rich, 
can  find  and  teach  all  the  worth  of  man  as  a 
spiritual  being,  and  can  compel  a  great  na- 
tion and  a  great  manhood  to  spring  up  from 
the  philosophy  of  the  soul. 

To  reach  a  result  so  new  and  so  great,  the 
pulpit  must  select  new  themes.  It  must  cull 
them  from  the  field  where  the  mob  raves, 
from  the  shops  where  men  labour,  from  the 
poverty  in  which  many  die,  from  the  oflice 
•  where  wealth  counts  its  millions.  Even  so 
beclouded  a  pagan  as  Virgil  sang  that  when 
the  mob  is  throwing  stones  and  firebrands, 
and  is  receiving  weapons  from  its  fury,  if 
Wisdom  will  only  become  visible  and  speak 
to  it,  it  will  listen,  and  at  last  obey.  We 
have  the  mob ;  it  is  high  time  for  a  divine 
Wisdom  to  speak  to  it. 

Our  planet  not  only  rolls  on  in  the  em- 
brace of  the  laws  of  gravitation,  of  light  and 
heat,  vegetable  and  animal  life,  and  the 
195 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

strange  encoinpassment  of  the  electric  ether, 
but  it  flies  onward  amid  spiritual  laws  far 
more  wonderful — laws  of  labour  and  rest, 
laws  of  mental  and  moral  progress,  laws  of 
perfect  justice  and  of  universal  love.  Oh, 
that  God,  by  His  almighty  power,  may  hold 
back  our  Nation  from  destruction  for  a  few 
more  perilous  years,  that  it  may  learn  where 
lie  the  paths,  in  which,  as  brothers  just  and 
loving,  all  may  walk  to  the  most  of  excel- 
lence and  the  most  of  happiness  ! 


196 


Addresses  and  Papers 
Foreign 


A  KOMAN  HOME 

A  Letter  to  his  Friend  Ximines,  from  Tiro,  a 
Slave  of  Cicero  1 

DEAR  XIMINES  : 

I  am  still  near  the  spot  where  my 
master  was  murdered.  I  am  in  his  deserted 
library,  and  from  a  place  so  full  of  sacred 
memory,  I  must  now  write  to  you  a  long 
letter  with  the  long-promised  grave  and  light 
particulars  about  this  greatest  of  the  Eomans. 
As  though  you  were  a  woman,  you  beg  to 
know  all  about  the  house  and  the  wife  and 
the  children,  and  even  the  table  and  the  en- 
tire private  life  of  this  orator.  The  wish  is 

1  Marcus  Tullius  Tiro,  a  Greek  slave  belonging  to 
Cicero.  He  was  made  a  freedraan,  and  was  Cicero's 
librarian  and  amanuensis.  He  is  believed  to  have  much 
improved  the  art  of  stenography.  This  imaginary  letter, 
while  quoting  from  genuine  "Familiar  Epistles"  of 
Cicero,  is  supposed  to  have  been  written  by  Tiro  to  his 
friend  Ximines.  It  gives  graphic  details  of  Roman  cus- 
toms, and  much  concerning  the  life  and  death  of  the 
great  orator,  who  was  killed  December  7,  43  B.  c. 
199 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

well  enough  ;  because  you  can  thus  compare 
Eome  with  Athens.  Your  wish  shall  be 
gratified  in  part,  for  the  cruel  death  of  my 
kind  master  only  last  week  renders  sacred 
even  the  small  things  that  now  come  up  to 
notice  or  to  memory.  Even  this  double  ink- 
stand, with  black  ink  in  one  side  and  red  in 
the  other,  recalls  the  dead,  for  it  is  the  very 
one  which  my  Cicero  shook  up  when  he  said 
he  must  write  more  distinctly  to  his  brother 
Quintus. 

Does  it  seem  so  to  you  ? — but  I  have  in- 
deed been  the  secretary  and  librarian  of  this 
Eornan  for  twenty  years.  You.  remember 
that  when  I  was  a  mere  lad  in  Athens  and 
was  being  taught  the  two  great  languages 
and  all  letters  that  I  might  be  a  literary 
slave  to  some  of  the  Athenians,  Cicero,  who 
was  then  in  our  city  to  study  rhetoric  with 
old  Demetrius,  formed  quite  an  attachment  to 
me,  and  hoped  to  call  me  some  day  to  Rome. 
Twenty  years  have  now  passed  since  he  sent 
for  me  and  paid  my  former  master  a  large 
sum  for  his  literary  slave,  Tiro. 

That  you  may  know  how  light  my  bondage 
for  these  years  has  been,  and  how  well  quali- 
fied I  am  to  speak  about  his  domestic  life,  I 
must  insert  an  extract  here  from  the  almost 
200 


A  Roman  Home 

daily  letters  which  Cicero  sent  me  when  he 
was  absent,  and  when  I  was  sick  at  Tusculum. 


"  I  did  not  imagine,  dear  Tiro,  that  I  should 
have  been  so  little  able  to  bear  your  absence, 
but  indeed  it  is  almost  beyond  endurance. 
Should  you  embark  immediately  you  would 
overtake  me  at  Leucas.  But  if  you  are  in- 
clined to  defer  your  voyage  till  your  recovery 
shall  be  more  confirmed,  let  me  entreat  you 
to  be  careful  in  selecting  a  safe  ship,  and  be 
careful  that  you  sail  in  good  weather,  and 
not  without  a  convoy.  It  is  true  I  am  ex- 
tremely desirous  of  your  company,  and  as 
early  as  possible,  but  the  same  affection  which 
makes  me  wish  to  see  you  soon  makes  me 
wish  to  see  you  well." 


And  I  must  add  here,  lest  I  forget  it,  that 
my  master  never  struck  me  nor  scolded  me, 
nor  did  he  ever  treat  any  of  his  slaves  with 
any  cruelty.  Some  of  the  Romans  do  indeed 
abuse  their  servants,  and  one  matron  recently 
ordered  one  of  her  dressing  maids  put  to 
death  because  she  arranged  badly,  or  made 
some  error  in  the  toilet  of  her  mistress ;  but 
I  never  saw  any  such  inhumanity  in  the  house 
of  my  great  master.  I  must  insert  here  an 
extract  from  another  letter : 
201 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

"I  dispatched  a  letter  to  you  from  this 
place  yesterday,  where  I  continued  all  day 
waiting  for  my  brother,  and  this  I  write  just 
as  we  are  setting  out,  and  before  sunrise.  If 
you  have  any  regard  for  us,  but  particularly 
for  me,  show  it  by  your  care  to  reestablish 
your  health.  It  is  with  great  impatience  I 
expect  to  meet  you  at  Leucas ;  but  if  that 
cannot  be,  my  next  wish  is  that  I  may  find 
Mario  there  with  a  letter.  We  all,  but  more 
particularly  I  myself,  long  to  see  you ;  how- 
ever, we  would  by  no  means,  dear  Tiro,  in- 
dulge ourselves  in  that  pleasure  unless  it  may 
be  consistent  with  your  health.  I  can  forego 
your  assistance,  but  your  health,  my  dear  Tiro, 
I  would  love  to  see  restored,  partly  for  your 
own  sake — partly  for  mine.  Farewell. 

"Alyzia,  Nov.,' 5  A.  M.,  703  A.  U.  C." 


Such  kind  letters  he  continually  wrote  me, 
and  so  many,  that  now  I  have  quite  a  num- 
ber of  them,  and  how  valuable  they  are,  since 
the}7"  make  me  feel  not  that  I  passed  long 
years  of  painful  servitude  with  such  a  man, 
but  instead,  long  years  of  elevating  com- 
panionship. 

When  coining  hither,  so  many  years  ago, 
on  reaching  the  harbour  nearest  the  Formian 
Yilla,  I  found  on  the  shore  quite  a  crowd  of 
people  and  an  assortment  of  conveyances, 
much  like  those  we  have  at  home ;  there 
202 


A  Roman  Home 

were  carriages  for  those  who  had  furthest  to 
go ;  there  were  litters  for  those  who  lived 
only  a  few  stadia  over  the  hills.  I  inquired 
for  the  house  of  Cicero,  and  was  pointed  to  a 
man  as  being  the  good  Konian  himself.  In 
a  plain  but  elegant  litter  sat  my  future  mas- 
ter. In  another  elegant  one  with  embroid- 
ered curtains  sat  his  wife  Terentia  Cicero, 
and  the  little  daughter  Tullia.  These  litters 
were  resting  on  their  wooden  braces,  while 
the  sixteen  slaves,  whose  business  it  was  to 
carry  them,  were  lounging  around  in  the  sun, 
almost  every  one  of  them,  having  his  hand 
full  of  ripe  figs  at  which  he  was  munching 
cheerfully.  Cicero  had  come  partly  to  meet 
me,  but  partly  from  the  custom  the  rich  fami- 
lies have  of  going  to  the  harbour,  when  they 
see  a  vessel  coming  in.  This  great  Roman 
Demosthenes  seemed  glad  to  meet  me,  and  as 
we  went  home,  I  walked  alongside  his  litter, 
and  as  the  curtains  were  looped  up,  he  talked 
all  the  while  in  a  most  elegant  manner.  He 
found  me  quite  familiar  with  recent  and  old 
books,  and  at  each  discovery  that  I  could 
speak  both  Latin  and  Greek  correctly,  his 
face  brightened. 

I  then  thought  him  a  very  homely  man. 
He  was  thin  and  pale,  and  his  neck  was  very 
203 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

long.  When  he  reached  over  the  rail  to  look 
forward  or  back,  his  neck  seemed  long  as 
that  of  a  crane.  But  amid  the  beauty  of  his 
character,  the  plainness  of  his  person  passed 
away.  Terentia  seemed  cold  and  unbending 
and  did  not  so  much  as  speak  to  me,  but 
Tullia,  the  little  daughter,  called  out  to  me 
to  ask  if  I  would  not  help  her  get  out  her 
lessons  in  Greek. 

Did  you  know,  Ximines,  that  the  wealthy 
Eomans  do  not  limit  themselves  to  one  coun- 
try place  ?  In  addition  to  a  costly  city  resi- 
dence, my  master  had  fourteen  villas  for  his 
summer  or  winter  pleasure.  "Wherever  an 
island  or  a  harbour  or  a  hill  especially  pleased 
him,  he  bought  or  built  a  house,  and  several 
places  were  given  him  by  wealthy  friends, 
who  were  or  might  be  his  clients  in  law,  or 
who  were  moved  by  simple  friendship.  Many 
large  sums  were  given  to  this  lawyer  in  the 
wills  of  those  who  had  been  near  him  in  life. 

Happy  summers  we  spent  sailing  or  jour- 
neying to  and  fro  among  these  beautiful 
places  of  rest.  The  Tusculum  Yilla  was  the 
favourite  of  us  all,  and  the  chief  of  the  group. 
It  was  in  the  border  of  Rome.  From  it  we 
could  see  all  the  public  buildings  in  the  one 
direction  and  all  the  beauty  of  hill  and  vale 
204 


A  Roman  Home 

and  water  and  sky  in  another.  Here  were 
our  library,  our  pictures,  our  statuary,  our 
best  gardens  and  fields,  our  fowls,  geese, 
ducks,  pheasants,  peacocks  and  pigeons.  My 
master's  city  residence  was  costly,  and  was 
wonderful  in  its  ornaments  and  apartments, 
but  we  all  loved  more  the  resort  out  at  Tus- 
culum.  That  city  home,  Clodius,  the  consul, 
in  the  depth  of  malice,  ordered  to  be  razed 
to  the  ground  when  he  banished  Cicero.  For 
days  the  mob  and  also  the  better  people  could 
be  seen  carrying  off  fragments  or  ornaments 
or  plunder  from  that  overthrown  palace. 
But  a  change  of  consuls  soon  came  and 
Rome  recalled  the  exile  and  rebuilt  our  city 
house. 

Our  Tusculum  villa  is  built  much  like  a 
general's  camp,  the  soul  being  in  the  centre, 
the  body,  the  impedimenta,  being  located  all 
around  the  valuable  part.  The  main  hall  of 
the  villa  is  the  soul.  Here  is  the  conversa- 
tion, here  the  beauty,  here  the  feast,  here  the 
art,  here  the  whole  family.  All  around  are 
the  shops  and  sleeping  bunks  of  the  servants. 
This  villa  is  approached  through  a  long  lane 
of  dwarf  box.  This  accommodating  shrub  is 
trimmed  and  bent  into  the  shapes  of  animals 
in  a  pretty  or  grotesque  manner.  Rampant 
205 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

lions  and  the  panther  so  much  seen  in  the 
games,  the  peacock  and  other  birds,  are 
on  either  hand  as  you  approach  the 
main  entrance  of  the  house.  The  structure 
measures  about  a  hundred  feet  across  the 
front  and  extends  back  fully  two  hundred 
feet.  The  exterior  is  set  apart  for  rooms  for 
the  artisan  slaves.  Our  carpenter  has  one, 
our  tailor  one,  our  groom  one,  our  cook  one, 
and  thus  on  until  the  family  is  in  the  midst 
of  quite  an  army  of  these  domestic  troops. 
Like  almost  all  the  Roman  houses  it  is  built 
of  brick,  but  some  parts  of  it  are  lined  with 
marble.  But  Rome  is  a  brick  city,  the  bricks 
being  about  one  span  square. 

Entering  this  large  square  by  a  beautiful 
gate,  you  are  passed  inward  by  the  keepers, 
and  after  a  few  steps  you  come  into  the  great 
hall,  which  is  the  home  of  the  Cicero  family. 
Marble  columns  support  the  roof,  which  is 
raised  high  above  the  head.  Marble  is  under 
foot.  All  around  one  stands  statuary,  most 
of  which  come  from  Greek  towns.  The  side 
walls  are  made  of  stucco,  and  these  are  ex- 
quisitely painted.  To  the  height  of  a  man 
above  the  floor,  the  colours  are  dark,  and  the 
figures  are  set  ones,  but  above  that  the  colours 
are  very  bright  and  the  figures  either  perfect 
206 


A  Roman  Home 

vines  and  flowers,  or  else  images  of  human 
and  divine  ideals.  In  this  immense  room  we 
ate  and  talked,  and  played  and  laughed,  and 
gave  parties,  and  danced  and  were  happy, 
until  death  entered  the  gate  to  break  up  this 
island  of  the  blessed.  In  some  Eoman  houses 
in  the  city  there  are  steps  to  lead  up  to  a 
second  story,  but  this  is  rarely  the  case. 
The  bedchambers  are  recesses  from  the  great 
hall  and  sometimes  there  is  one  sleeping  berth 
above  another,  and  the  one  who  sleeps  above 
climbs  up  by  two  pins  inserted  in  the  masonry. 

At  Tusculum,  my  master  had  a  bedroom 
made  for  himself  in  the  rear  of  the  building. 
He  had  ordered  deadened  walls  on  all  sides, 
and  a  window  that  he  could  darken ;  that 
when  he  had  been  up  late  at  night  he  might 
not  be  disturbed  by  that  clatter  of  all  kinds 
made  by  the  slaves,  nor  be  awakened  by  the 
too  obtrusive  sunshine  of  the  morning. 

The  library  was  a  room  with  the  walls  on 
all  sides  arranged  for  books.  Each  book 
had  its  little  cell,  like  the  holes  in  which  our 
pigeons  live.  It  was  not  my  place  to  take 
care  of  the  volumes,  but  to  read  them  to  my 
master  and  to  his  family  and  friends  ;  and  to 
be  forever  seeking  for  new  truths  or  ideas 
or  beauties  for  the  great  orator's  happiness 
207 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

and  use.  He  had  a  slave  who  looked  after 
the  binding  and  dusting  and  arranging  of 
the  works.  Cicero  would  not  permit  a  dirty 
cover  to  remain  on  a  volume,  nor  a  soiled 
label.  All  must  be  bright  and  cheerful,  much 
as  the  good  man  was  himself.  One  set  of 
books  he  had  such  as  I  never  saw  at  Athens 
— books  full  of  portraits.  He  had  seven 
hundred  portraits  of  distinguished  Eomans. 
As  Brutus  and  Caesar  had  the  same  pictures 
in  their  libraries,  I  concluded  and  heard  that 
there  was  some  shop  where  one  picture  could 
be  multiplied  until  all  could  have  copies ; 
but  I  have  not  yet  found  that  ingenious 
shop. 

Our  library  is  ornamented  in  fine  manner 
by  paintings  and  statuary.  Now  I  remember 
how  mad  my  master  was,  when,  having 
ordered  Atticus  to  buy  him  some  good  pieces 
in  Greece,  that  erring  friend  shipped  to  us  a 
lot  of  cupids  and  nymphs.  My  master  did  not 
want  such  stuff  in  his  rooms. 

Passing  out  of  the  library,  one  comes  to 
the  flower-garden  and  fish-ponds  and  poultry- 
yard.  How  much  that  great  Cicero  did  love 
his  geese  and  peacocks  and  chickens  and 
pigeons!  Even  when  he  knew  he  must 
make  an  important  speech  that  day,  and 
208 


A  Roman  Home 

when  he  was  full  of  care  about  the  oration, 
he  would  yet  take  the  time  in  the  morning 
to  go  out  and  see  how  the  pigeons  and 
pheasants  were  getting  along.  I  have  known 
him  to  pay  a  large  sum  for  two  pigeons' 
eggs  that  he  heard  would  hatch  out  some 
rare  species.  In  the  flower-garden  and 
among  the  fruit  trees,  the  dinner  and  supper 
were  often  served  in  the  summer  months.  I 
often  read  aloud  while  the  family  ate.  I 
loved  thus  to  read,  for  the  grass  under  foot 
secured  for  us  such  a  silence  that  reading  and 
hearing  were  more  delightful. 

Permit  me  now  to  rest  you  a  little,  dear 
Ximines,  by  leading  you  from  the  small  to 
the  great,  for  you  know,  dear  friend,  the 
soul  is  so  constructed  that  it  can  find  rest  in 
going  from  the  little  to  the  large,  or  from 
the  large  to  the  little.  Man  can  walk  a 
circle  with  less  fatigue  if  at  times  he  changes 
his  direction.  Let  me  tell  you  about  Cicero 
as  a  student  and  an  orator.  He  was  wider 
in  his  tastes  than  our  Demosthenes.  You 
know  our  orator  loved  only  matters  of  State, 
but  this  Koman  loved  all  books  and  all 
things.  He  read  everything  he  could  find. 
If  I  found  a  good  passage  I  went  to  him 
with  it,  perfectly  assured  that  he  would  en- 
209 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

joy  it  whether  it  was  prose  or  poetry,  or  law 
or  religion  or  geography,  or  only  a  piece  for 
exciting  laughter.  In  one  way  or  another, 
all  he  saw  or  heard  or  read,  helped  him  in 
either  his  public  speeches  or  his  conversa- 
tions. All  that  went  into  his  brain  came  out 
again  in  some  better  shape. 

He  will  live  in  the  world's  fame  as  an 
orator,  but  I  shall  remember  with  deepest 
pleasure  his  fun  and  talk  at  home.  Every 
evening  friends  came  in.  There  were  Tre- 
batius  and  Hortensius  and  Atticus  and  Kufus 
and  Brutus  and  Cato,  and  by  degrees  my 
master  would  become  aroused,  and  all  even- 
ing long  he  would  pour  forth  jokes  and  anec- 
dotes or  else  would  quote  gems  from  the 
poets.  He  was  a  mimic  of  manners,  and 
would  keep  all  delighted  by  mimicking  all 
the  bad  and  eccentric  speakers  of  the  city 
and  the  clowns  of  the  day.  Grave  as  my 
master  was  in  his  public  addresses,  he  filled 
some  of  his  letters  to  friends  and  sometimes 
the  rooms  of  justice  and  always  our  home, 
with  sayings  that  led  to  much  laughter  and 
much  good  cheer.  In  all  the  letters  he 
wrote  to  the  young  lawyer,  Trebatius,  who 
had  gone  with  Caesar  on  his  British  expedi- 
tion, there  were  seldom  any  words  except 
210 


A  Roman  Home 

those  of  pure  humour.  He  expressed  in  one 
of  them  the  opinion  that  his  friend  had  gone 
over  the  sea,  that  he  might  be  the  greatest 
lawyer  now  living  in  Britain.  In  another 
he  opines  that  the  reason  why  his  friend  had 
remained  carefully  away  from  battle  could 
not  be  found  in  any  cowardice,  but  it  must 
have  been  in  the  unwillingness  of  a  student 
of  law  to  be  guilty  of  making  an  assault.  In 
one  of  the  replies  of  Trebatius,  there  were 
signs  that  some  former  writing  had  been 
erased  to  leave  the  page  blank  for  the  letter 
to  Cicero.  In  the  next  missile  to  this  absent 
friend,  Cicero  expressed  a  wonder  what  could 
have  been  on  that  paper  that  could  have  made 
it  less  valuable  than  the  proposed  letter — he 
concluded  that  what  was  erased  "  must  have 
been  one  of  your  own  [Trebatius']  briefs." 

When  Yerres  was  upon  trial  for  defraud- 
ing the  people  of  Sicily,  for  stealing  statuary 
and  jewels  and  pictures,  and  for  assessing 
and  collecting  most  unjust  taxes,  Hortensius 
defended,  and  Cicero  prosecuted  the  accused. 
It  was  known  to  my  master  that  Yerres  had 
sent  to  his  attorney  a  valuable  piece  of 
marble — an  Egyptian  Sphynx.  In  the  course 
of  the  examination  of  witnesses,  Hortensius 
became  angry  at  one  of  those  on  the  side  of 
211 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

the  prosecution,  and  thundered  out  that  he 
wanted  no  riddles  but  a  plain  statement  of 
facts.  Cicero  said  calmly,  u  Hortensius,  you 
should  be  glad  to  get  a  supply  of  riddles 
since  you  have  at  home  such  a  valuable 
sphynx."  This  quite  upset  the  gravity  of 
the  crowd,  and  all  laughed  over  the  predica- 
ment of  the  distinguished  Hortensius. 

There  was  a  form  of  literary  sport  which 
was  my  master's  great  delight — a  double  use 
of  a  word  ;  a  use  in  which  the  hidden  import 
would  suddenly  spring  up,  bringing  always 
a  pleasure.  These  double-edged  words  he 
loved  to  send  off  to  this  same  fun-loving 
Trebatius.  He  reminded  him  that  the  win- 
ters would  be  cold  up  in  Gaul,  but  that  his 
regimentals,  when  they  should  come,  would 
keep  out  much  cold ;  and  that  Caesar  would 
perhaps  have  some  hot  work  for  him ;  and 
that  upon  the  whole  he  was  not  so  hopeless 
as  a  soldier  as  he  was  as  a  lawyer.  Trebatius 
having  remained  on  the  peaceful  side  of  a 
river  while  Caesar  went  over  to  fight,  Cicero 
congratulated  the  friend  that  he  had  so  far 
eliminated  all  ill-will  from  his  heart  that  he 
had  become  unwilling  even  to  cross  water  !  ! ! 

Indeed  I  shall  not  deny  that  to  see  the 
housetops  covered  with  people  and  the  streets 
212 


A  Roman  Home 

densely  crowded  with  a  multitude,  all  silent 
to  hear  Cicero  speak  against  the  cruel  Yerres, 
or  the  despot  Antony,  was  a  great  spectacle 
and  one  which  it  was  my  fortune  often  to 
witness,  but,  for  some  reason,  my  own  mem- 
ory will  cherish  most  those  evenings  in  the 
villas  when  the  jokes  were  so  good  and  all 
were  so  perfectly  happy.  Julius  Ca3sar  at 
one  time  determined  to  gather  up  in  a  little 
volume  all  the  Cicero  stories  and  witticisms 
he  could  find,  but  I  fear  that  the  last  five 
years  of  Caesar's  life  were  passed  in  so  much 
war  and  turmoil  that  he  never  prosecuted 
his  intention.  At  none  of  the  bookstores  do 
I  find  any  such  volume.  I  need  no  such 
volume,  but  the  laughing  world  will. 

My  master  spoke  much  like  the  orators 
we  have  seen  and  heard  in  Athens.  He  imi- 
tated and  he  acted  as  he  spoke.  He  threw 
himself  about  from  place  to  place  on  the 
rostrum  and  seemed  to  have  in  him  the  souls 
of  a  whole  company  of  men.  When  he  first 
began  speaking  in  public,  he  was  so  full  of 
action  and  passion  that  he  injured  his  health 
and  was  compelled  to  leave  Eome  and  seek 
peace  abroad.  He  spoke  just  as  do  the  act- 
ors in  the  theatres,  changing  his  face  and 
voice  to  suit  each  style  of  the  changing 
213 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

thought  and  argument.  He  had  an  extreme 
ambition  and  seemed  to  know  in  youth  that 
he  was  destined  to  be  great.  When  he  en- 
tered the  law  some  wanted  him  to  change 
his  name,  for  Cicero  meant  only  a  vegetable. 
They  told  him  it  did  not  sound  large  enough. 
He  said  in  reply  that  he  would  keep  his 
father's  name  and  make  it  sound  honourable. 
He  wore  out  his  health  in  a  few  years  and 
sailed  to  Greece  for  rest.  On  his  return,  he 
assumed  a  manner  a  little  more  quiet  but  it 
was  still  very  full  of  action.  But,  my  good 
friend,  he  was  a  wonderful  man.  I  always 
attended  him  when  he  was  to  make  a  speech 
that  when  he  came  to  write  it  out  fully  after- 
wards, I  could  aid  him  if  he  had  lost  any 
particular  thought  or  the  structure  of  a  sen- 
tence. I  have  known  the  lawyers  opposed 
in  a  case  to  my  master  to  venture  no  reply 
but  to  abandon  their  cause  after  Cicero  had 
made  his  opening  speech. 

A  rather  amusing  event  took  place  while 
Caesar  was  dictator,  only  a  few  years  ago. 
A  case  was  before  Caesar.  The  evidence 
having  been  all  taken,  Caesar  was  about  to 
give  his  judgment  and  had  declared  that  no 
speeches  need  be  made  as  his  mind  had  been 
made  up  fully  that  the  person  charged  was 
214 


A  Roman  Home 

guilty.  Cicero  arose  to  make  a  brief  volun- 
tary plea.  Caesar  said  jokingly  that  he  had 
not  heard  Cicero  for  so  long  that  it  would 
be  rather  pleasant  to  hear  the  good  fellow- 
speak  once  again.  He  heard  him ;  got 
amazed  and  highly  wrought  up,  and  dis- 
charged the  accused  as  being  the  most  inno- 
cent man  of  his  acquaintance. 

Ah,  my  Ximines,  let  me  tell  you  more  now 
of  the  home  life  of  the  dead  orator  and 
master,  more  dear  to  me  as  a  master  than  as 
an  orator.  Let  me  tell  you  briefly  about  the 
social  scenes  in  our  city  house,  and  also  in 
the  villa  at  Tusculum.  One  of  our  largest 
reunions .  of  friends  was  given  when  Cicero's 
only  daughter  Tullia  had  just  begun  to 
attract  the  attentions  of  Roman  lovers.  As 
soon  as  night  had  fully  come  the  friends  be- 
gan to  pour  in.  Some  came  by  carriages, 
some  by  the  popular  litter.  At  last  you 
could  have  seen  gathered  in  the  hall  Julius 
Caasar  and  his  wife ;  Decimus  Brutus  and 
Marcus  Brutus,  Cato,  Hortensius,  Marcus 
Antony,  Crassus,  Quintus  Cicero,  the  brother 
of  my  Marcus,  Pompey  and  Publius,  Crassus 
Atticus,  Casca,  and  a  hundred  other  such 
notable  men.  Not  any  less  was  the  number 
of  the  noble  women  and  maidens.  Pomponia, 
215 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

the  wife  of  Cicero's  brother,  came  early  and 
had  begun  to  chat  with  her  sister-in-law. 
Cornelia,  the  daughter  of  Metellus  Scipio, 
was  there  dressed  in  plain,  but  rich  costume, 
for  she  was  a  woman  of  intellect  rather  than 
of  dress.  She  resembled  the  Cornelia  of 
Gracchi  fame.  The  La3lia  girls  were  pres- 
ent in  all  their  style  of  costume  and  beauty 
of  face.  There  were  three  of  them,  and 
they  might  have  stood  for  three  Graces.  The 
talk  that  Cicero  thought  too  highly  of  these 
daughters  was  all  old  time  gossip. 

In  this  throng  were  not  a  few  of  the 
Roman  "pretty  men,"  homo  bellus.  The 
lellus  homo  is  a  man  wholly  devoted  to 
fashion  and  dress  and  pleasure.  The  number 
of  these  has  greatly  increased  of  late  years. 
The  young  men  in  general  seem  to  be  of 
this  sleek  and  effeminate  school.  The  sons 
of  the  great  senators  and  orators  are  for 
the  most  part  idle,  pretty  men,  who  part 
their  hair  with  the  utmost  precision  and 
smell  of  all  the  perfumes  of  the  South.  They 
wear  snow-white  robes,  and  powder  like 
women  to  make  white  their  bare  arms  ;  and 
in  the  wearing  of  rings  they  equal  any 
matron  of  this  dying  Eepublic.  These 
youths  gathered  that  night  in  one  corner  of 
216 


A  Roman  Home 

the  great  hall,  and  with  a  few  equally  silly 
girls  they  hummed  over  part  of  Kile  love- 
songs,  and  lounged  in  the  large  soft  seats  de- 
signed for  the  ladies  of  rank. 

Most  of  the  love-songs  here  locate  their 
scenes  of  romance  and  the  actors  in  the 
scenes  over  on  the  Nile ;  not  only  because 
Cleopatra  has  introduced  there  an  era  of 
sentiment,  but  rather  because  the  spirit  of 
romance  always  finds  its  ideal  land  away 
from  home,  there  being  no  witchery  in 
things  that  are  near.  I  remember  that  we 
boys  at  Athens  sang  of  Roman  adventure, 
but  coming  hither  I  found  the  Roman  young 
souls  locating  the  exploits  of  successful  and 
unsuccessful  love  as  far  as  possible  away 
from  all  existing  realities.  It  must  belong 
to  human  nature  to  cover  up  with  enchant- 
ment hills  and  vales  and  peoples  that  are 
just  beyond  the  eye's  field  of  vision. 

At  times  I  heard  some  elegant  measures 
from  some  thoughtful  poet,  but  for  the  most 
part  these  brainless  youths  sang  little  verses 
of  which  I  may  give  you  here  a  fair  sample : 

If  you  would  live  your  life 
In  the  light  of  woman's  smile, 

And  escape  all  toil  and  strife, 
Then  away  to  the  Nile  ! 
217 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

There  my  barge  may  float  all  night 
On  the  love-creating  stream, 

Where  the  soft  and  amber  light 
Changes  life  into  a  dream. 

My  love  is  in  the  boat 

And  I  am  by  her  side  ; 
Oh,  let  me  ever  float 

On  this  love-produciug  tide. 

In  Kome  at  all  hours  of  the  night  one  can 
hear  some  part  of  this  shape  of  song  rising 
up  from  the  streets,  and  so  fully  alive  is  the 
whole  city  to  the  romance  of  love  affairs, 
that  even  old  men  whistle  these  tunes  as  they 
plod  along  to  work  or  to  idleness,  generally 
to  idleness,  for  none  but  slaves  pursue  any 
toilsome  occupation. 

Of  this  trifling  class  was  Cicero's  son 
Marcus.  At  least,  while  he  was  away  in 
Greece  at  school,  word  often  came  to  us  that 
he  was  living  in  a  dissipated  manner  and 
was  spending  much  more  money  than  had 
been  allowed  him.  But  not  of  this  foolish 
class  was  the  daughter  Tullia.  She  resem- 
bled her  father  in  her  love  of  learning  and  of 
wise  conversation,  and  thus  when  our  parties 
were  given  this  beautiful  girl  was  found 
talking  with  Caesar  or  Pollio  or  Archias, 
rather  than  with  the  fops  at  the  other  end  of 
218 


A  Roman  Home 

the  corridor.  Had  I  not  been  only  a  servant, 
it  would  have  been  an  immeasurable  joy 
could  I  have  sought  and  gained  her  love. 
As  things  were,  I  confess,  my  dear  Ximines, 
my  heart  beat  quickly  with  happiness  when 
she  would  request  me  to  bring  her  a  certain 
volume  and  read  for  the  company,  at  her 
command,  some  sentiment  that  had  given  her 
delight.  My  partiality,  perhaps,  made  me 
admire  her  dress  more  than  the  magnificent 
toilet  of  Cassar's  wife  or  the  gay  attire  of 
the  LaBlia  daughters.  On  this  particular 
evening  Tullia  wore  over  her  wine-coloured 
dress  a  delicately  tinted  pink  scarf  which 
quite  enfolded  her.  It  had  a  still  brighter 
border.  Her  hair  was  heaped  up  rather 
negligently  on  her  head,  and  was  held  in 
place  by  a  gold  arrow.  As  she  played  on 
the  harp  and  sang,  she  showed  a  sandal  with 
a  rim  of  gold  all  around  the  sole,  and  a  per- 
fect network  of  pearls  covering  the  instep  of 
her  almost  sacred  foot.  Add  to  these  orna- 
ments a  golden  ball  which  she  would  at 
times  toss  to  some,  and  from  which  would 
gush  forth  a  little  cloud  of  perfumed  dust, 
and  you  can  see  this  loved  and  now  wept-for 
Tullia.  I  used  to  wonder  what  the  great 
father  would  have  said  or  done  had  I  ever 
219 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

taken  by  the  hand  that  beautiful  being,  or 
had  I  ever  addressed  a  note  of  affection  to 
her.  Now  that  both  are  dead  I  am  glad 
that  my  insane  love  never  ventured  forth  in 
formal  language. 

On  this  evening  we  had  for  the  feast  all 
the  fish  and  fowls  and  fruits  known  to 
Roman  or  Greek,  and  the  most  elegant 
wines.  Cicero  loved  glassware  with  quite 
a  passion,  and  his  engraved  goblets  were 
passed  freely  about,  filled  with  their  nectar 
of  Bacchus.  Cassar,  the  most  distinguished 
of  our  guests,  ate  but  little,  but  you  should 
have  seen  him  eat  once  at  our  Formian1 
house.  He  announced  that  he  was  intending 
to  have  a  full  feast,  and  feast  he  did,  for  he 
intended  on  rising  from  dinner  to  take  an 
emetic,  and  spare  himself  the  pain  of  digest- 
ing such  a  load  of  meat  and  fruit  and  wine. 
You  know  the  feast-goers  often  do  this — eat 
all  they  can,  with  the  intention  of  taking, 
after  the  meal,  this  "  emetikon."  The  glut- 
tons do  it,  not  that  they  may  escape  distress, 
but  that  they  may  return  and  eat  a  second 
dinner  the  same  night.  They  create  a 
stomach  like  that  of  the  vulture,  which  can 
load  and  unload  almost  at  pleasure. 

1  This  villa  of  Cicero's  was  in  Formiae,  Italy. 
220 


A  Roman  Home 

For  another  reason  Caesar's  visit  to  our 
Formian  village  was  remarkable,  for  he 
brought  with  him  a  thousand  men,  soldiers 
and  friends.  Most  of  them  encamped  in  the 
garden,  but  my  master  had  to  feed  all  out- 
side the  environs  and  to  entertain  the  impor- 
tant men  of  the  number  within  the  walls, 
and  they  ate  and  drank  in  a  most  hearty 
manner.  Next  day,  when  the  company  had 
departed  to  the  last  man,  Cicero  came  up  to 
me  in  the  library,  and  remarked,  with  a  grave 
face :  "  Caesar  is  indeed  a  very  notable  guest, 
but  he  is  not  one  of  those  fellows  to  whom, 
on  his  going,  one  says,  '  Call  again.5  " 

My  master  was  no  feasting  man.  There 
were  only  a  few  simple  things  he  could  eat. 
No  fish  or  oyster  could  he  digest,  and  even 
after  all  the  care  he  took  of  his  health  he  suf- 
fered all  the  years  I  was  with  him.  He  drank 
wine,  but  seldom  to  excess.  Only  one  night 
is  recalled  now  when  he  came  home  with  his 
intellect  clouded  by  wine.  He  had  been 
out  spending  the  evening  with  two  fellow 
lawyers,  and  coming  home  about  midnight 
he  did  not  as  usual  come  into  the  library, 
but  he  passed  straight  to  his  room.  In  the 
morning  he  mentioned,  with  regret,  that  he 
feared  he  had  drank  so  much  the  night 

221 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

before  as  to  expel  his  wits,  for  his  com- 
panions had  asked  him  for  an  opinion  of  a 
law  point  and  he  now  felt  that  he  had 
given  a  foolish  reply.  On  consulting  the 
reports  I  found  that  my  master  had  not 
been  very  drunk  after  all.  The  question 
that  had  been  raised  at  the  neighbour's  was, 
whether  an  heir  to  an  estate  could  bring 
action  for  damages  the  estate  had  sustained 
before  it  actually  came  into  his  possession, 
he  being  the  legal  heir  apparent  ? 

My  dear  Ximines,  I  must  give  you  rest  from 
these  small  matters,  by  telling  you  now  in 
rapid  succession  of  four  large  events ;  I  may 
call  them  the  four  dark  days  of  all  the  long 
years.  In  their  books  the  Egyptians  and  the 
Persians  tell  of  days  when  the  sun  did  not 
shine,  but  showed  a  black,  sullen  face  ;  when 
the  wild  bird  flew  to  its  nest,  and  the  cattle 
bellowed  and  groaned  in  the  fields.  Be  these 
stories  true  or  not,  dark  days  came  to  our 
house.  First  came  the  divorce  of  the  wife 
and  mother,  Terentia.  On  a  certain  day, 
only  five  years  ago,  this  wife  and  mother 
bade  Tullia  farewell,  and  left  the  home 
where  she  had  been  through  all  the  period 
of  her  girlhood  and  middle  life.  I  saw  little 
reason  for  such  a  crisis  in  the  house.  I  am 
222 


A  Roman  Home 

positive  that  the  event  came  so  gradually 
that  all  the  parties — the  husband  and  wife 
and  daughter — were  already  reconciled  to 
it  when  it  came  really  to  pass.  My  master 
had  had  many  great  trials,  and  under  them 
was  growing  old.  He  needed  perfect  peace 
in  his  home,  and  constant  praise  from  all. 
Terentia  managed  badly  all  the  money 
matters.  She  never  praised  in  any  manner 
her  famous  husband :  but  on  the  opposite,  set 
up  an  opposition  of  feeling,  if  I  may  so  speak. 
Cicero  was  himself  so  great  that  he  filled  the 
house  to  such  a  degree  that  there  was  no 
room  for  another.  Tullia  was  full  of  demon- 
stration over  all  her  father's  speeches  and 
writings ;  and  as  she  drew  ever  nearer  her 
father,  the  mother  to  that  degree  receded. 
By  degrees  Terentia  began  to  look  away 
towards  the  house  of  her  own  father  as 
offering  her  an  asylum,  and  with  the  large 
dowry  handed  back  to  her,  which  she  had 
brought  Cicero  in  her  youth,  she  went  away 
from  our  villas  forever.  It  is  a  good  quality 
of  Eoman  law  that  a  man  who  puts  aside  his 
wife  must  first  restore  to  her  the  dowry 
she  brought  him  in  her  days  of  youth  and 
beauty.  She  could  not  come  rich  and  go 
away  poor. 

223 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

No  sooner  had  our  home  circle  recovered 
from  this  calamity  than  there  came  the 
greatest  one  that  could  have  assailed  the 
tender  heart  of  my  master.  Tullia  suddenly 
died.  In  about  her  twentieth  year,  this 
daughter,  whom  he  had  called  the  "  honey 
sweet,"  took  away  from  earth  her  blessed 
face  and  language. 

She  had  been  married,  but  yet  her  father's 
home  was  almost  all  the  time  cheered  by  her 
presence ;  and  when  the  word  came  from  her 
sick  room  that  the  disease  had  become  sud- 
denly alarming,  the  grief  of  the  illustrious 
father  was  most  extreme.  Death  came  very 
suddenly.  All  the  deep  philosophy  of  my 
master  failed  him.  Letters  from  all  the  great 
men  of  the  land  came  to  him,  bearing  all 
forms  of  consolation,  and  some  full  of  reproof 
that  such  a  statesman  should  be  so  broken 
down  by  the  death  of  only  a  daughter.  But 
letters  brought  no  softening  of  the  affliction. 
We  withdrew  to  our  villa  of  Astura,  because, 
being  upon  an  island,  it  offered  the  broken 
heart  two  blessings — security  against  the 
intrusion  of  man,  and  the  presence  of  all  the 
sweetness  of  nature.  Here,  in  this  lonely 
place,  my  master  did  not  even  desire  my 
presence  any  longer,  but  alone,  every  morn- 
224 


A  Roman  Home 

ing,  he  would  walk  away  to  the  woods,  and 
would  not,  perhaps,  until  evening  emerge 
from  their  sympathetic  shadows.  He  was 
also  alone  much  in  his  library,  and,  entering 
it  in  his  absence,  I  would  find  on  his  table 
outlines  of  monuments  and  forms  of  epitaphs. 
His  heart,  unable  any  longer  to  look  for- 
ward, was  thus  looking  back.  Life  has  been 
awfully  injured  when  it  looks  only  back. 

The  tragic  fate  of  Caesar  soon  followed,  to 
conceal  the  tomb  of  the  "  honey  sweet  daugh- 
ter." All  the  patriots,  and  all  the  rivals  of 
Caesar,  too,  had  feared  that  the  Ides  of  March 
would  see  him  declared  king.  The  friends 
of  this  royal  movement  had  pretended  to  find 
oracular  dictates  that  only  a  king  could  con- 
quer the  Parthians.  As  the  Ides  drew  near, 
the  city  became  restless  and  suspicious  in  all 
ways  at  once.  On  the  morning  of  the  Ides 
we  all  went  to  the  Senate.  By  noon  Cicero 
and  I,  his  servant,  were  in  our  places,  anx- 
ious, but  uncertain.  My  master  knew  of  no 
conspiracy.  All  began  to  wonder  that  Caesar 
did  not  come  to  preside,  for  there  seemed  to 
be  business  awaiting  transaction.  I  learned 
that  night  that  Caesar  had  resolved,  as  by 
mere  accident,  to  stay  at  home  until  the 
much  talked  of  Ides  should  have  passed  by. 
225 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

That  morning  his  wife  had  told  him  that  she 
had  dreamed  that  he  had  come  flying  to  her 
in  the  night,  saying,  "  Save  me ! "  This 
helped  detain  Caasar.  He  had  also  gone  out 
in  the  garden  in  the  morning  to  note  how 
his  doves  and  pheasants  would  fly  when  he 
should  feed  them  or  call  them.  They  came 
up  on  his  left  hand.  This  also  helped  him 
in  his  resolution  to  let  that  day  pass  by  in  the 
most  possible  of  retirement.  The  conspira- 
tors, finding  the  day  passing  and  that  their 
victim  would  perhaps  not  come  to  the  forum, 
made  out  a  pressing  demand  for  the  imagi- 
nary king,  and  sent  down  a  messenger  to 
Caesar's  house,  telling  him  that  a  case  of 
importance  was  being  argued,  and  that  the 
Senate  would  be  gratified  if  he  would  come 
and  preside.  He  at  once  dismissed  his  secret 
forebodings,  and  ordering  out  his  litter,  en- 
tered and  was  borne  along  to  the  assembly. 
To  a  watchman  on  the  street  he  remarked 
pleasantly :  "  Ah,  friend,  the  Ides  of  March 
have  come,  and  have  brought  no  trouble." 
"  Come,  but  not  gone !  "  was  the  reply. 

Seated  upon  his  Chair  of  State  in  the  Curia 

Pompeii,  Caasar  asked  that  the  case  be  at 

once  presented.     Tullius   Cimber  then  said 

that  he  had  a  brother  in  exile  whom  he  would 

226 


A  Roman  Home 

now  petition  the  Senate  to  recall ;  and  while 
pleading  for  this  brother  he  grew  more  and 
more  earnest,  and  at  the  end  of  each  sentence 
took  a  step  forward  as  though  he  would  lay 
his  affectionate  pleadings  upon  the  very  breast 
of  Julius.  Other  senators,  too,  began  to 
speak  as  though  the  case  were  one  of  tre- 
mendous importance;  and  as  they  spoke 
they,  too,  moved  gently  forward.  It  is  my 
own  impression,  dear  Ximines,  that  they 
overdid  their  earnestness,  and  that  Caesar's 
heart  suddenly  divined  that  the  eloquence 
was  full  of  something  more  terrible  than  the 
exile  of  Cimber's  brother.  Caesar  arose  from 
his  seat,  but  in  an  instant  the  dagger  of  Casca 
gleamed  and  came  down.  I  heard  the  dead 
sound  of  the  blow.  In  his  fearful  tremulous- 
ness  Casca  had  struck  his  grand  victim  only 
in  the  shoulder-blade.  Caesar  grasped  the 
dagger,  and  screamed  forth  in  a  loud  voice, 
"Casca,  you  villain,  what  means  this?" 
"While  we  all  gazed,  horror-stricken,  sud- 
denly other  daggers  gleamed  and  struck, 
and  the  great  man,  muttering  some  pathetic 
words  which  I  could  not  catch,  fell  heavily 
upon  the  floor.  Some  relate  that  he  said, 
"  And  thou,  Brutus  !  "  Others  told  me  next 
day  that  when  he  saw  Brutus  raise  his  dagger, 
227 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

he  said,  "  And  my  son  !  Brutus ! "  It  had 
long  been  rumoured  that  Brutus  was  a  son 
of  Caesar. 

In  a  few  days  after  this  thrilling  event,  my 
master  began  to  say  that  it  was  a  great  over- 
sight in  the  Kepublicans  not  to  have  slain 
Antony  ;  that  he  was  more  willing  to  be  a 
despot  than  Julius  had  been,  and  that  had 
the  conspirators  invited  him  (Cicero)  to  their 
liberty  feast,  there  was  one  dish  that  would 
not  have  been  carried  away  uncarved.  My 
master  despised  and  feared  Mark  Antony.  I 
must  close  this  letter,  dear  Xirnines,  by  telling 
you  how  this  enmity  soon  hurried  my  Cicero 
out  of  life.  When  Antony  and  Octavius  and 
Lepidus  formed  the  second  Triumvirate,  and 
deceived  the  people  by  giving  them  three 
tyrants  instead  of  one,  each  two  of  the  Tri- 
umvirs conceded  to  the  other  the  privilege 
of  putting  to  death  his  greatest  enemy. 
Lepidus  demanded  Lucius  Caesar;  Octavius 
demanded  Paulus ;  Antony  asked  the  life  of 
Cicero. 

We  were  at  the  Tusculum  villa.  A  mes- 
senger came  in  fearful  haste,  his  horse  almost 
falling  from  fatigue.  Cicero  and  his  brother 
went  out  to  meet  him,  and  in  a  few  moments 
came  back  into  the  great  hall.  Cicero  said 
228 


A  Roman  Home 

to  me,  calmly :  "  Antony  has  condemned  me 
to  death."  My  heart  sunk.  I  was  in  a  mo- 
ment glad  that  Tullia  had  passed  to  the 
grave,  which  has  no  fresh  sorrow.  A  group 
of  servants  were  called,  both  boatmen  and 
porters,  and,  having  gotten  ready  the  most 
essential  things,  we  hurried  to  Astura,  one 
of  my  master's  villas,  a  few  stadia  away. 
Should  we  reach  that  point,  from  there  we 
should  sail  for  Macedonia.  But  there  was 
little  hope  of  a  final  escape  from  the  wide 
domain  of  Rome.  The  road  was  literally 
sprinkled  with  our  tears.  When  we  halted, 
each  stood  with  an  arm  around  his  friend, 
and  Cicero  and  his  brother  embraced  each 
other  many  times,  and  bade  many  farewells ; 
for,  in  my  master,  friendship  was  as  vast  a 
thing  as  learning  or  eloquence. 

We  sailed  from  Astura,  but,  after  a  day 
out  in  tough  weather,  Cicero  grew  sick,  and 
at  the  same  time  he  felt  a  great  longing  to 
risk  his  native  land,  or  die  upon  its  soil.  He 
made  our  seamen  sail  into  a  harbour  where 
we  had  a  villa,  and  there  we  all  disembarked. 
The  porters  took  up  the  litter  and  bore  him 
to  our  beautiful  Formian  house.  Here  we 
had  known  happy  times  in  the  past.  When 
we  had  gotten  into  the  ample  hall,  he  said, 
229 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

"Let   me  die  here,  in  the  country  I  have 
attempted  so  often  to  save." 

He  lay  down  to  sleep.  It  was  the  7th  of 
December.  In  only  a  few  moments,  servants 
came  in  from  remote  parts  of  the  farm,  say- 
ing that  horsemen  were  coming  towards  the 
house.  The  porters  did  not  wait  for  the 
order  or  even  the  permission  of  Cicero,  but, 
affectionately  taking  him  up,  they  laid  him 
in  the  litter,  and  told  him  they  must  go  back 
to  the  ship.  "We  had  advanced  only  a  hun- 
dred paces  when  the  assassins  closed  up 
around  the  baffled  group.  The  slaves  set 
down  the  litter.  Cicero  parted  the  curtains, 
and  reaching  out  his  head,  gray  with  age 
and  trouble,  he  addressed  one  of  the  pursuers 
by  name,  and  said :  "  Strike  me,  if  you  think 
it  is  right."  The  bloody  men  halted  an  in- 
stant. The  face  before  them  was  calm  and 
noble.  The  hearts,  conscious  of  guilt,  faltered, 
but  only  for  an  instant.  Herrennius,  who 
had  dismounted,  stepped  forward,  and,  with 
a  half  dozen  ill-aimed  and  cruel  blows,  he 
severed  the  head  from  the  body.  The  body 
remained  in  the  litter ;  the  head  rolled  over 
on  the  earth  beneath.  The  hands,  too,  were 
cut  off  and  were  borne  to  Antony,  who  or- 
dered them  to  be  fastened  up  in  the  Forum, 
230 


A  Roman  Home 

where  the  lips  and  hands,  too,  had  been  so 
eloquent  against  kings. 

My  dear  Ximines,  I  heard  this  matchless 
speaker  deliver  more  than  thirty  great  ora- 
tions, and  I  have  read  all  his  books  and  let- 
ters, and  am  thus  familiar  with  the  utter- 
ances, public  and  private,  of  his  great  soul, 
but,  to  my  memory,  no  words  of  his  come 
now  with  more  significance  or  beauty  than 
those  uttered  in  the  last  days  of  his  life :  "  I 
try  to  make  my  enmities  transient,  and  my 
friendships  eternal." 

Your  friend, 

TIRO. 

Tusculum  Villa,  Dec.  19,  A.  U.  C.  710. 
[The  year  4.8  B.  (?.] 


231 


XI 
DANTE1 

EACH  myth  is  probably  believed  by  the 
tribes  which  first  utter  it.  Children 
are  often  six  or  seven  years  old  before  they 
turn  away  from  the  realism  of  Santa  Claus 
and  his  sleigh,  but  no  lapse  of  years  can  turn 
the  mind  away  from  Santa  Claus  as  a  sym- 
bol. To  us  who  are  oldest  the  myth  is  just 
as  valuable  as  it  was  when  it  was  not  a  myth 
but  a  truth  to  the  mind  of  our  childhood. 
By  the  time  a  race  has  reached  the  power  to 
produce  a  literature  it  has  passed  the  period 
of  belief  in  its  own  wonderland.  What  was 
once  true  turns  into  mental  furniture,  orna- 
ment, available  capital,  a  pictorial  language. 
We  Americans  have  just  as  much  use  for 
Hercules  as  Yirgil  had,  because  the  story  en- 
ables us  to  express  the  difficulty  of  cleaning 
the  Augaaan  stables  of  a  city,  and  to  slay  that 
Lernasan  Hydra  which  infests  each  metrop- 
olis of  the  American  Occident  and  Orient. 

1  Born  in  May,  1261  ;  died  September  14,  1321  A.  D. 

232 


Dante 

It  is  impossible  to  learn  now  how  much 
Homer  believed  of  his  own  tale,  but  it  seems 
almost  certain  that  he  dealt  with  the  dog 
Kerberus  just  as  the  Egyptians  had  used  the 
animal  before  Homer  and  exactly  as  our 
Milton  made  use  of  the  Hell  Hound  in  recent 
years. 

Some  Greek  realist  of  the  Socratic  period 
said  that  Homer  ought  to  be  removed  from 
Greek  thought,  because  he  taught  the  people 
a  mass  of  fables ;  but  the  human  family  has 
not  regarded  the  suggestion,  for  fables  are 
what  we  all  want.  We  do  not  feel  them  as 
truth,  but  as  powerful  illustrations  of  truth. 
We  want  them  as  language.  We  do  not 
want  Lot's  wife  as  a  pillar  of  salt,  but  we  do 
desire  to  keep  in  mind  that  if  an  educated 
and  beautiful  woman  starts  towards  some 
noble  life  and  then  concludes  after  all  that 
she  would  rather  dance  and  sing  in  a  base- 
ment saloon,  she  ought  to  be  smitten  into 
some  insensate  stick,  stock  or  stone.  Her 
life  possesses  no  value. 

It  seems  just  to  Dante  to  look  upon  him 
as  making  that  use  of  the  wonderful  to  which 
Yirgil  and  Ovid  had  subjected  it,  but  only 
for  nobler  purposes — for  the  decorations  of 
a  higher  theme.  Milton  did  not  believe  in 
233 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

any  of  his  details,  but  we  all  come  from  the 
"  Paradise  Lost "  with  the  simple  feeling 
that  we  have  for  hours  and  hours  been  in  a 
world  above  and  beyond  our  setting  sun. 

When  Dante  finds  a  group  of  souls  existing 
in  the  form  of  trees  of  which  the  leaves  sigh 
in  eternal  sorrow  and  drip  with  a  bloody 
dew,  he  simply  borrows  from  Ovid,  and 
especially  from  Yirgil,  whose  companions  in 
attempting  to  pull  up  a  shrub  are  amazed  to 
hear  its  roots  cry  out :  "  Do  not  lacerate  me 
thus,  for  I  am  Polydorus."  To  Dante's 
living  human  trees  are  added  as  appropriate 
birds  the  Harpies  which  had  figured  at  the 
camp  of  JEneas. 

Each  writer  in  each  successive  period 
becomes  heir  to  an  enormous  lot  of  images 
and  pictures  which  become  his  language. 
The  personal  relation  of  Yirgii  to  his  myths 
was  that  of  Goethe  to  his  Faust,  and  of  Milton 
towards  his  Satan,  and  of  Klopstock  towards 
his  elegant  angel  Ithuriel.  Mr.  Hamilton 
Mabie  delineates  in  one  of  his  books  some 
mysterious  movements  on  the  part  of  Nature. 
The  winds,  the  black  clouds,  had  been  angry 
for  many  hours ;  they  had  in  some  manner 
impressed  the  lightning  and  thunder  into 
the  atmospheric  misunderstanding ;  great 
234 


Dante 

volumes  of  blackness  had  been  flung  at  the 
sun  by  day  and  into  the  face  of  the  moon  at 
night.  The  unpleasantness  was  all  a  mystery 
until  daylight  having  come,  our  friend  threw 
open  his  shutter  and  saw  the  apple  trees  in  full 
bloom.  We  now  dismiss  all  the  intellectual 
machinery  of  which  the  writer  made  use  and 
simply  thank  him  for  dispelling  our  stupidity 
and  coaxing  us  to  look  at  a  blossoming 
orchard.  He  did  not  believe  in  any  quarrel 
in  the  upper  air.  Thus  Homer,  Yirgil,  Dante, 
Milton  and  Shakespeare  are  all  practical 
common-sense  men,  but  they  are  rich  in 
intellectual  furniture.  Their  ability  to  put  a 
truth  on  a  stage  was  wonderful.  But  Dante 
and  Beatrice  are  not  a  piece  of  absolute 
realism.  The  sweet  girl  was  much  more 
loved  than  many,  but  so  was  Yirgil  a  favourite 
of  Dante.  Beatrice  was  simply  the  one 
blossom,  highest  and  reddest,  of  a  luxuriant 
soul.  Yirgil,  Statius,  Eachel  and  Matilda 
all  share  with  Beatrice  in  this  outpoured 
love  in  Dante's  great  work. 

Dante  was  nearly  forty  years  old  when  he 
toiled  at  the  production  of  the  no  w  illustrious 
poem.  He  was  about  thirty  years  distant 
from  that  boyhood  morning  in  which  he 
looked  with  such  rapture  upon  the  child 
235 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

Beatrice.  Whatever  may  have  been  the 
dazzle  of  those  youthful  days,  nearly  all 
thoughtful  persons  who  live  in  this  century 
cannot  but  feel  that  that  romance  of  the 
tenth  year  could  have  reached  the  fortieth 
only  in  the  form  of  a  beautiful  memory. 
Romantic  love  is  one  of  those  small  boats 
which,  although  magnificent  as  the  barge  of 
Cleopatra,  is  better  for  a  coast  service  than 
for  crossing  the  wide  sea.  Thirty  years  are 
too  wide  an  ocean  ;  Dante's  bannered  barge 
did  not  cross  it.  But  there  is  an  event  that 
is  common — that  of  a  sensitive  and  noble 
mind  looking  back  and  bedecking  with  new 
tears  the  object  it  kissed  long  ago.  When 
cares  and  misfortunes  have  been  many,  and 
when  the  future  becomes  too  small  to  contain 
much  of  hope,  the  past  all  reopens  and  the 
heart  arises  and  says :  I  will  go  back  to  my 
father's  house.  There  love  and  plenty  await 
me.  The  more  husks  and  swine  about  the 
feet,  the  more  willing  and  grand  is  the  re- 
turn. 

It  is  quite  unjust  to  Dante  to  think  of  him 
as  "  the  lover  sighing  like  a  furnace,  with  a 
woeful  ballad  made  to  his  mistress'  eye- 
brow ; "  for  although  he  did  inscribe  a  mighty 
sonnet  to  the  eyes  of  his  mistress,  he  must  be 
236 


Dante 

granted  the  credit  of  having  waited  until  the 
love  which  canie  at  first  sight  had  been  sub- 
dued by  all  the  worldly  events  of  more  than 
thirty  years.  He  was,  indeed,  wonderfully 
sentimental,  but  he  was  also  a  soldier,  a 
statesman,  a  scholar.  Beatrice  was  only  a 
colour  thrown  over  a  varied  life  like  the 
colour  of  a  sunset,  whose  hues  turn  sky,  land 
and  trees,  living  or  dead,  into  pure  gold. 
But  there  was  nothing  of  the  weak  young 
man  in  the  nature  of  Dante.  His  era  was 
romantic.  To  be  in  love  was  the  privilege 
of  each  separate  person  ;  and  so  open-hearted 
were  the  Italians  that  the  new  or  the  old 
attachments  of  each  one  were  matters  of 
confession  and  common  conversation  equalled 
in  our  day  by  the  themes  of  science  or  poli- 
tics. 

Dante  and  Beatrice  were  parallelled  in  the 
lives  of  many  men  and  women  of  those 
intermediate  centuries.  The  Minnesingers 
and  the  errant  knights  had  made  song  and 
love  rank  as  fine  arts.  It  was  the  wonderful 
prevalence  and  power  of  love-song  that 
induced  Dante  to  break  friendship  with  the 
Latin  language  and  utter  his  soul  in  the  cur- 
rent words  of  the  people.  He  wrote  the 
first  part  of  the  "Inferno"  in  the  classic 
237 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

tongue,  but  in  the  years  in  which  that  manu- 
script was  resting  he  reached  some  new 
appreciation  of  the  popular  speech,  and  when 
he  resumed  the  comedy  the  thoughts  ran  out 
in  harmonious  Italian.  It  is  probable  that 
the  Latin  tongue  had  become  so  associated 
with  the  law  and  theology  of  the  age  that  it 
seemed  unable  to  be  the  accompaniment 
of  the  song  the  poet  intended  to  sing. 
Language,  like  all  other  objects,  is  liable  to 
become  the  victim  of  associations.  The  same 
sentimentalism  which  exalted  Beatrice  ex- 
alted the  Italian  dialect.  The  language  of 
his  love  overpowered  the  language  of  his 
theology. 

Admitting  that  all  the  fashionable  people 
of  that  period  made  romantic  love  a  channel 
and  expression  of  culture,  we  must  concede 
that  Dante  possessed  a  poetic  sensibility 
which  made  him  almost  outdo  his  own  age. 
Whatever  may  be  the  genius  of  a  time,  there 
will  be  leaders  in  the  dominant  pursuit  or 
condition.  If  the  age  be  scientific,  there  will 
be  Newtons ;  if  it  be  philosophic,  there  will 
be  Lockes  and  Hamiltons ;  if  it  be  religious, 
there  will  be  Xaviers  and  Marquettes.  While, 
therefore,  Dante  loved  according  to  the  cus- 
tom of  his  times,  he  was  eminent  in  his  de- 
238 


Dante 

partment  and  no  doubt  surpassed  the  common 
crowd  in  a  kind  of  adoration  of  persons.  In 
our  own  times  it  is  evident  that  John  Stuart 
Mill,  Henry  Hallain,  and  Robert  Browning 
were  capable  of  carrying  more  than  the  com- 
mon quantity  of  affection.  The  death  of 
young  Hallam,  of  Mrs.  Mill,  and  of  Mrs. 
Browning  were  shadows  wonderfully  deep 
in  the  hearts  upon  which  they  fell.  Mill 
and  Hallam  never  again  saw  earth  in  its  old 
beauty.  Those  two  graves  made  each  sunset 
bring  tears.  Upon  Dante  there  must  be  seen 
falling  the  full,  rich  untorn  mantle  of  his 
country  and  epoch.  In  the  midst  of  love  he 
was  above  all ;  he  was  a  dashing  leader  in 
the  great  battle-field  of  the  heart. 

The  age  which  made  this  poet  so  romantic 
also  transformed  the  adored  child  and  woman. 
When  a  girl  possessed  great  beauty  and  great- 
ness of  character,  she  became  an  emblem 
while  she  lived  and  almost  a  divinity  after 
her  death.  The  world  was  still  so  young  and 
illogical,  so  wonder-loving,  that  it  personified 
all  spiritual  beauties  and  virtues.  The  con- 
crete was  dearer  than  the  abstract.  The 
Greeks  and  Romans  worshipped  a  little  army 
of  Minervas,  Junos,  Yenuses,  Dianas,  and 
nymphs,  because  they  did  not  respect  the  real 
239 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

woman  enough  to  tempt  their  hearts  to  make 
for  her  a  throne  or  a  pedestal.  Each  Minerva 
proclaimed  the  absence  of  the  real  woman. 
When  woman  became  great  in  learning  or 
talent  she  declined  in  morals,  and  Aspasia 
and  Cleopatra  were  so  affected  by  gossip  that 
when  men  wished  to  worship  womanhood 
they  turned  towards  Minerva  rather  than 
towards  the  favourites  of  Pericles  and  Mark 
Antony. 

The  invasion  of  the  world  by  the  New 
Testament  wrought  a  gradual  but  at  last  a 
radical  change.  Those  gospels  and  letters 
chased  the  Yenuses  and  Dianas  out  of  art 
and  created  a  demand  for  such  earthly  sym- 
bols as  the  Marys  and  the  Magdalens.  Ce- 
cilia, Teresa,  and  quite  a  long  roll  of  human 
saints  made  the  worship  of  Beatrice  possible. 
Much  as  the  Protestants  may  be  opposed  to 
the  mariolatry  of  the  Koman  Catholics,  they 
should  confess  the  services  which  the  "  Ave 
Marias  "  have  performed  in  behalf  of  woman- 
hood. They  have  taken  from  the  clouds,  the 
groves,  the  fountains  and  the  sea  the  virtues 
of  a  thousand  nymphs  and  have  conferred 
them  upon  the  terrestrial  woman.  John 
Stuart  Mill  and  his  wife  make  up  of  woman- 
hood a  better  picture  for  man  than  that  of 
240 


Dante 

Numa  Poinpilius  and  the  goddess  Egeria. 
Since  the  Mary  of  Bethlehem  came,  humanity 
has  wasted  less  worship  over  the  chimeras  of 
the  childish  ages.  It  has  used  all  its  intel- 
lect and  sentiment  in  the  upbuilding  of  the 
kingdom  of  womanhood.  It  has  not  been 
drained  of  wealth  by  a  costly  foreign  policy. 

To  exchange  the  goddesses  for  womanhood 
was  not  only  what  would  seem  a  good  form 
of  barter  looked  upon  in  any  light,  but  it  was 
rendered  more  profitable  to  civilization  by  the 
fact  that  the  womanhood  must  be  idealized  in 
order  that  the  orators,  poets  and  lovers  could 
pass  from  Diana  to  Mary,  from  a  Juno  to  a 
Beatrice.  There  must  be  some  resemblance 
between  the  old  divine  and  the  new  human. 
The  Marys  and  Marthas  were  thus  thrown 
upward  into  a  figure  larger  than  the  reality. 
The  New  Testament  so  exalted  the  plane  of 
female  life  that  it  soon  became  very  possible 
to  have  in  Rome  or  Florence  human  emblems 
of  a  physical  and  moral  beauty  which  had 
always  been  supposed  celestial.  Olympus 
was  displaced  by  Florence. 

It  was  in  a  climate  full  of  the  warmth  of 

nature,  in  an  age  of  romance,  in  a  time  of 

transition  between  the  unreal  and  the  real, 

that  the  boy  Dante  met  the  girl  of  exceeding 

241 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

beauty.  That  she  was  the  loveliest  creature 
of  the  times  no  one  need  deny.  According 
to  Carlyle,  each  generation  contains  its  love- 
liest face  as  well  as  its  worst  book  or  meanest 
man.  By  very  slow  degrees  Dante  wove 
this  loveliest  face  into  his  poems  as  a  most 
fitting  motive.  Not  only  did  he  wait  for  the 
beauty  to  die  and  become  an  angel,  but  he 
had  patiently  and  silently  passed  over  the 
time  and  fact  of  her  marriage.  It  was  ten 
years  after  her  death  and  about  fourteen 
years  after  Dante's  marriage  to  another 
woman,  that  his  poems  began  to  appear  in 
the  name  of  the  infinite  friendship. 

It  would  thus  seem  that  the  poet  in  the 
noon  of  his  sad  experience,  driven  by  his 
inward  genius  to  hold  up  his  generation  to 
the  gaze  of  the  people,  selected  this  dead  and 
half -idolized  beauty  to  be  the  motive  of  his 
long  symphony. 

Dante  did  not  bear  patiently  his  banish- 
ment. He  made  repeated  attempts  to  get 
back  to  his  city  with  its  beauty  and  precious 
friendships,  and  at  each  failure  his  heart 
became  more  melancholy  and  his  fury  more 
flaming.  The  volume  which  slowly  grew  in 
his  mind  was  not  a  simple  poem,  not  a  love- 
story.  It  was  an  encyclopedia  of  Italy. 
242 


Dante 

Italy  had  been  in  a  political  turmoil  for  the 
several  generations  in  which  the  two  parties 
struggled  for  supremacy — the  papal  power 
and  the  temporal  power — the  former  an 
absolute  throne,  the  latter  a  constitutional 
monarchy.  The  papal  party  was  founded 
upon  miracles,  the  limited  monarchists  upon 
the  history  of  Greek  and  Eoman  law.  The 
struggle  of  those  two  ideas  made  Florence 
and  Rome  battle-grounds  not  only  for  swords 
but  for  words :  and  by  the  time  Dante  had 
drunk  in  a  heart  full  of  political  wrongs  and 
sorrows,  he  had  in  mind  a  large  number  of 
persons  who  ought  to  be  thought  of  as  in 
hell  or  purgatory,  and  his  heart  held  a 
memory  of  many  noble  ones  who  ought  to 
be  dreamed  of  as  in  heaven. 

The  book  was  thus  too  great  to  be  a  love 
story  ;  it  was  intended  to  be  the  history  of  a 
period — a  bar  of  judgment  created  as  an  out- 
line of  the  final  day  of  punishment  and 
reward.  If  any  persons  now  living  should 
open  the  volume  with  the  thought  of  finding 
in  it  any  love-making,  any  rapturous  kisses 
over  proposal  and  acceptance,  it  is  not  in  the 
power  or  extent  of  this  essay  to  express  the 
disappointment  they  will  experience  as  they 
read;  but  if  any  one  loves  to  mark  what 
243 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

political  and  religious  ideas  were  moving 
slowly  across  the  Eleventh,  Twelfth,  and 
Thirteenth  Centuries,  what  silent  formations 
as  cloud  and  storm  were  reaching  up  in 
the  sky,  what  rifts  there  were  through 
which  shone  the  sun,  what  kind  of  political 
leaders  needed  perdition,  what  kind  of  popes, 
cardinals  and  bishops  needed  the  limbo  of 
pain  and  regrets,  what  noble  ideas  had  come 
down  from  the  classics,  what  nobler  ones 
from  the  simple  truths  of  Palestine,  what 
lofty  beings  had  risen  up  in  every  age,  what 
groupings  of  truths  genius  can  make,  what 
lofty  decorations  the  art  of  literature  can 
rear  upon  the  thrilling  or  beautiful  facts  of 
our  race,  and  how  poetry  can  draw  the  truest 
portrait  of  history,  to  such  a  one  the  work 
named  "  Dante "  will  seem  not  a  tale  of 
romance  but  a  vast  stream  of  knowledge  and 
eloquence. 

Dante  was  not  a  Beau  Brummell,  nor  an 
N.  P.  Willis.  He  was  a  heroic  character, 
ready  to  be  a  soldier  or  an  ardent  student  of 
Paris  or  Padua.  He  was  once  ruler  in  chief 
of  the  Principality  of  Florence ;  a  citizen 
king  of  the  town  that  could  grow  such  people 
as  Beatrice.  He  was  no  languishing  lover. 
He  was  rather  a  combination  of  part  Pericles 
244 


Dante 

and  part  Homer.  Beatrice  was  not  a  part 
of  Dante's  life,  so  much  as  a  part  of  his 
literary  art.  In  life,  he  loved  her  a  little ; 
in  literature  he  loved  her  deeply. 

Dante  was  the  transition  heart  between 
the  old  poetic  epic  and  the  new  era  of  novels. 
When  the  "  Divine  Comedy "  was  written, 
no  novel  had  ever  been  composed.  Had  this 
Florentine  lived  six  hundred  years  later,  his 
beautiful  girl  would  have  become  a  Mrs. 
Kobert  Ellsmere,  and  Dante's  scorn  would 
have  missed  the  Pope  and  smitten  John 
Calvin  and  modern  Orthodoxy.  But  fortu- 
nately for  us,  in  the  Thirteenth  Century  the 
novel  had  not  yet  been  invented. 

What  is  a  novel  ?  Literature  in  general  is 
that  part  of  the  world's  thought  that  is 
beautiful.  The  truth  in  the  algebra  or  in  the 
grammar  is  real  and  useful,  but  it  is  not 
beautiful.  As  music  is  not  sound,  but  only 
beautiful  sound,  as  architecture  is  not  the  art 
of  building,  but  of  building  beautifully,  so 
literature  is  that  thought  or  truth  which 
comes  to  us  commended  by  ornament. 
The  novel  is  a  book  of  truth  or  thought,  or- 
namented by  the  presence  of  an  attractive 
woman.  As  man  has  viewed  and  measured 
his  world,  the  most  attractive  object  under 
245 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

the  wide  heavens  is  woman.  Man  thinks 
well  of  daisies  and  roses ;  he  approves  of  the 
rainbow  ;  he  cannot  but  speak  kindly  of  the 
ocean ;  but  his  words  grow  the  most  eloquent 
when  he  comes  to  speak  about  some  woman 
of  great  absolute  or  alleged  beauty. 

Bowing  before  this  shrine,  Homer  asked  a 
Helen,  a  Briseis,  a  Penelope,  to  decorate  his 
long  stories;  Sophocles  had  impressed  into 
sweet  duty  the  matchless  Antigone ;  Yirgil 
had  used  Dido  and  Lavinia  to  act  as  colours 
for  all  his  fields  and  clouds.  When  in  the 
last  lines  of  Yirgil,  the  dying  Turnus  says  to 
his  rival :  "  Tua  est  Lavinia  conjux,"  etc., 
"  Lavinia  is  thy  wife.  Follow  me  no  longer 
with  thy  vengeance,"  those  words  were 
prophetic  of  a  day  when  a  beautiful  or  frail 
woman  would  ornament  a  million  books 
which  should  terminate  each  one  in  a  wed- 
ding or  a  funeral.  But  Dante  was  yet  living 
under  the  Greek  and  Latin  administration. 
As  Homer  had  asked  Penelope  to  wave  per- 
petually her  flag  of  beauty,  as  Yirgil  had 
made  Dido  and  Lavinia  allure  the  world 
along  over  his  lines,  so  Dante  knew  perfectly 
well  that  we  should  all  pass  more  willingly 
through  Hell  and  Purgatory,  and  through 
Heaven's  gates,  were  we  all  aware  that  be- 
246 


Dante 

fore  us  ran  or  floated  a  half  divine  Beatrice. 
When  in  mature  life,  this  Italian  leader  and 
statesman  determined  to  write  an  epic  of 
Italy,  he  could  not  forget  that  a  beautiful 
womanhood  had  often  been  the  musical 
accompaniment  of  human  reflections.  Man- 
hood has  also  stood  for  an  ornament,  but  man 
as  such  has  never  equalled  woman  in  the 
ability  to  create  or  furnish  a  fine  art.  Dante 
marked  how  the  Homeric  verses  had  made 
thoughts  plead  and  fail  or  triumph  around  an 
attractive  Helen.  Had  not  Penelope  inspired 
a  poem  of  general  travel  and  adventure? 
Had  not  Dido  and  ^Eneas  helped  Yirgil  to 
make  a  continuity  of  beads  of  every  size  and 
colour  ?  Beatrice  was  so  matchless  in  beauty 
and  character,  and  had  been  so  exalted  by 
the  absence  the  grave  had  brought,  and  she 
was  so  precious  to  Dante's  personal  memory, 
that  his  lips  must  have  said :  "  I  will  ask  her 
to  cast  a  charm  over  my  survey  of  the  Italian 
state.  She  will  exalt  the  reader  while  she 
exalts  me.  She  shall  be  a  standard  of  vir- 
tues in  comparison  with  which  the  blackness 
of  the  age  will  remain  undoubted.  She  will 
gladly  come  back  to  me,  for  my  misfortunes 
will  make  all  the  scenes  of  my  youth  return, 
and  the  past  will  fill  a  heart  that  no  longer 
247 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

possesses  a  future."  Thus  comes  the  book 
to  us,  a  song  indeed,  but  also  a  history,  a 
philosophy,  a  sketch-book,  an  oration,  a  gal- 
lery of  pictures,  a  synopsis  of  the  Thirteenth 
Century. 

Dante  might  well  be  called  the  first  states- 
man of  the  Christian  period.  He  came  in 
advance  of  English  and  German  letters,  and 
although  the  Magna  Charta  had  been  created 
in  England  a  few  years  before  Dante  was 
born,  one  of  the  twenty  Oxford  colleges  had 
just  been  founded.  It  was  a  mere  grammar 
school  in  those  days.  London  and  Paris 
were  on  the  margin  of  that  political  light 
which  was  still  shining  out  from  the  classic 
sun.  Italy  was  nearer  the  centre.  The 
politics  of  the  Greeks  and  Romans  flowed 
westwardly  along  with  their  languages,  but 
they  had  not  gone  much  beyond  Florence 
when  this  great  mind  studied  them. 

In  this  continent  when  a  great  railway  is 
opening  out  westwardly,  industry,  wealth, 
houses,  streets,  schools  and  churches  spread 
out  fan-like  around  the  terminus  of  the  high- 
way. When  after  some  years  pass  the  road 
is  carried  a  hundred  miles  onward,  the  local 
congestion  diminishes  and  the  power  passing 
along  the  iron  rail  runs  to  another  terminus 
248 


Dante 

and  repeats  there  its  fan-like  opening.  Thus 
in  the  Twelfth  and  Thirteenth  Centuries  the 
vast  Greek  and  Koman  highway  ended  in 
Florentine  Principality,  and  as  leaves  and 
blossoms  grow  where  the  vine  is  cut  off,  thus 
a  high  politics  threw  out  its  leaves  where  the 
Latin  road  ended  or  the  Latin  vine  was 
broken.  Two  parties  arose,  sometimes  called 
the  Guelphs  and  Ghibellines,  sometimes  the 
Whites  and  the  Blacks.  Called  by  what- 
ever name,  those  two  divisions  were  the  same 
old  ones  of  all  times.  The  Guelphs  implied 
the  rule  by  constitutional  law.  Following 
the  example  of  nearly  all  great  minds,  Dante 
espoused  the  broadest  right  and  principle 
and  became  the  sturdy  Eepublican  of  his 
period.  He  argued  for  the  separation  of 
Church  from  the  State  and  won  the  fame  of 
orator  before  he  won  the  fame  of  poet.  He 
antedated  Count  Cavour  five  hundred  years, 
and  wrote  down  political  maxims  which  are 
now  the  practice  of  the  whole  Western  world. 
The  treatise  "  De  Monarchia  "  carried  the 
idea  of  constitutional  politics  so  far  that  it 
argued  for  a  unity  of  all  the  states  of  Europe 
with  such  home-rule  here  and  there  as  a 
change  of  circumstance  should  demand.  The 
monarchy  Dante  dreamed  of  differed  little 
249 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

from  the  England  and  America  of  to-day. 
To  meet  this  unity  of  States  the  same  broad 
thinker  advocated  a  unity  of  language,  and 
showed  how  the  fourteen  dialects  of  Europe 
were  at  bottom  only  one  tongue.  Of  this 
unity  of  law  and  language  and  race  the 
Papal  absolutism  was  the  one  natural  enemy. 
Hence  came  the  parties,  Guelphs  (Papal)  and 
Ghibellines  (monarchical),  hence  the  skir- 
mishes and  battles  of  centuries,  hence  the 
slaughter  of  the  Albigenses  which  came  a 
few  years  before  the  birth  of  the  poet,  hence 
the  slaughter  and  exiles  of  the  Huguenots 
long  after,  hence  all  the  horrors  which  came 
between. 

It  was  Dante's  attachment  to  the  idea  of 
human  unity  that  made  him  select  Virgil 
and  Statius  as  dramatis  personce  in  the  poem 
in  which  the  Christian  Beatrice  was  to  be 
the  leading  character.  Such  a  grouping 
came  from  the  feeling  that  genius  and  mo- 
rality make  all  times  and  persons  to  be  one. 
In  Dante's  visions  Pagan  and  Christian  move 
along  side  by  side.  David  was  crowned 
King  of  Israel  while  ^Eneas  was  landing  in 
Italy,  and  Christ  came  into  the  world  at  a 
time  when  He  could  be  aided  by  the  reign 
of  Ca3sar  Augustus.  Plato,  Socrates,  Py- 
250 


Dante 

thagoras  and  Cicero  were  the  same  in  sub- 
stance with  the  Fathers  of  the  Church.  In 
the  eternal  world  he  saw  Plato,  the  idealist, 
and  Aristotle,  the  realist,  sitting  down  to- 
gether in  equal  honour  or  imperfection. 
Boethius,  the  philosopher,  coming  five  hun- 
dred years  after  Christ,  joined  with  the 
pages  of  Cicero  in  making  Dante  declare 
that  philosophy  had  become  the  mistress  of 
his  soul.  As  Solomon  had  long  before 
painted  Wisdom  as  an  attractive  woman  who 
took  her  place  near  the  city  gates  and  ut- 
tered lessons  to  the  passing  throng,  so  Dante, 
deeply  coloured  in  all  the  profound  thought 
which  lay  between  Plato  and  Boethius,  de- 
clared his  Beatrice  to  be  the  living  emblem 
of  that  wisdom  of  the  world  : 

"  O  lady,  thou  in  whom  my  hopes  have  rest, 
Who  for  my  safety  has  not  scorned,  in  hell 
To  leave  the  traces  of  thy  footsteps  marked, 
For  all  mine  eyes  have  seen,  I  to  thy  power 
And  goodness  virtue  owe  and  grace.    Of  slave 
Thou  hast  to  freedom  brought  me,  and  no  means 
For  my  deliverance  hast  left  untried. 
Thy  liberal  bounty  still  towards  me  keep 
That  when  my  spirit  which  thou  madest  whole 
Is  loosened  from  this  body,  it  may  find 
Favour  with  thee.     So  I  my  plea  preferred  ; 
And  she  so  distant  far,  looked  down, 
Smiled  once  and  towards  the  eternal  fountain  turned, ' ' 
251 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

The  scene  preliminary  to  this  prayer  seems 
to  take  the  poet  away  from  the  mere  char- 
acter of  a  lover  and  transform  him  into  a 
mind  busy  among  the  problems  of  Florence 
and  of  society.  Beatrice  had  vanished  from 
his  side,  and  when  he  had  cried  out, 
"  Whither  has  she  vanished  ?  "  an  aged  man 
appeared  instead  and  replied  that  the  loved 
one  had  sent  him  to  point  out  the  higher 
throne  to  which  she  had  risen.  So  Dante 
let  eye  run  upward,  throne  above  throne,  and 
there  he  beheld  his  idol  high  up  among  the 
eternal  truths  and  the  infinite  liberty.  It  is 
not  probable  that  Beatrice  stood  for  any  one 
form  of  truth,  that  of  religion  or  politics,  but 
for  that  philosophy  which  is  the  highest 
form  of  truth  and  thought  attainable  in  all 
the  departments  of  mental  industry.  She 
was  to  Dante  a  living  embodiment  of  what 
our  more  abstract  century  has  embodied  in 
the  hymn  "  Nearer  to  Thee."  Beatrice  stood 
for  all  height — political,  ethical  and  religious. 

With  such  internal  reasons  of  being,  this 
poem  began  at  once  a  career  of  influence. 
It  would  not  have  created  the  Italian  lan- 
guage had  it  not  possessed  an  internal  great- 
ness which  clothed  its  melodious  words  with 
power.  Dante  did  not  make  a  language  by 
252 


^Dante 

joining  the  dictionary  to  mere  poetic  beauty ; 
he  was  made  more  powerful  by  his  having 
the  courage  and  the  statesmanship  that  could 
attach  language  and  beauty  to  what  was 
greatest  in  civilization.  That  which  com- 
pelled one  pope  to  forbid  the  reading  of  the 
verses  was  the  element  in  them  which  car- 
ried them  along.  It  was  known  that  Dante 
had  declined  in  anger  a  permission  to  return 
to  Florence  if  he  would  return  a  penitent 
and  pay  also  a  fine.  He  said  he  was  not  so 
earthen-hearted  as  to  go  back  like  a  truant 
schoolboy  or  as  a  criminal.  He  must  return 
in  honour  or  not  at  all.  He  could  see  the 
sun  and  stars  when  outside  the  city,  and 
could  ponder  over  sweet  truth  under  any 
sky.  Thus  the  poem  rested  upon  funda- 
mental truths  and  the  person  of  a  hero. 

To  the  dignity  of  its  themes  the  work 
adds  all  the  confessed  elements  of  true  poetry. 
The  art  is  a  high  art.  The  natural  style  of 
Dante  is  as  full  of  surprises  as  that  of  Hugo. 
It  is  intense  and  condensed.  Often  a  word 
or  a  phrase  rings  out  like  a  trumpet  or  the 
discharge  of  a  heavy  gun,  and  then  follows 
the  tranquillity  of  a  few  lines.  One  of  his 
cantos  begins  thus : 

"  Broke  the  dead  stillness  of  my  brain  a 
253 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

crash  of  heavy  thunder."  He  arose  and 
looked  around.  The  reader  is  aroused  along 
with  the  writer.  The  thunder  was  the  only 
bell  fit  to  awaken  such  a  traveller  in  the 
Inferno.  No  rap  on  the  bedroom  door,  no 
breakfast  bell,  would  be  adequate  call  for  one 
who  is  to  advance  a  few  paces  and  find  men 
and  women  in  the  regions  of  eternal  grief. 
A  crash  of  heavy  thunder  was  just  the 
awakening  the  traveller  needed  in  that  awful 
gulf.  When  the  fact  or  event  needs  the 
softened  speech  of  sympathy,  the  rude 
sounds  all  cease,  and  the  poem  runs  along 
like  the  bird  song  in  the  "Siegfried"  of 
Wagner. 

To  the  now  living  reader  of  Dante  the 
book  has  become  only  a  treasure  of  detached 
gems.  So  many  persons  in  the  work  are  so 
unknown  to  us  that  but  for  humanity's  sake 
we  should  not  care  whether  the  poet  had  sent 
them  to  heaven  or  hell.  We  cannot  pass 
judgment  upon  their  doctrines  or  their  con- 
dition. It  is  necessary  to  leave  many  such 
matters  with  the  artist ;  but  at  intervals  all 
through  the  long  creation  come  episodes  that 
belong  to  the  Nineteenth  Century  and  Thir- 
teenth alike.  The  continuity  of  the  tale  is 
gone,  but  there  is  a  lapful  of  pearls  now  off 
254 


Dante 

their  silken  string.  When  Dante  speaks  of 
a  forest  in  spring  time  it  is  for  our  hearts  he 
speaks.  The  woods  is  the  one  through  which 
we  have  all  walked  in  some  happy  day  of 
perhaps  early  life. 


"  Through  that  celestial  forest  whose  thick  shade 
With  living  greenness  the  new  coming  day 
Attempered,  eager  now  to  roam  and  search 
Its  limits  round,  forthwith  I  left  the  stream, 
Through  the  wide  woods  leisurely  my  way 
Pursuing  o'er  the  ground  which  on  all  sides 
Delicious  odour  breathed.    A  pleasant  air 
That  intermitted  never,  never  veered, 
Smote  on  my  temples — a  mild  wind 
Of  touch  the  softest,  at  which  the  boughs 
Obedient  all  bent  trembling  towards  that  point 
Where  first  the  Holy  Mountain  casts  its  shade, 
Yet  were  not  so  disordered  but  that  still 
Upon  their  top  the  feathered  quiristers 
Applied  their  wonted  art,  and  with  full  joy 
Welcomed  those  hours  of  prime,  and  warbled  loud 
Amid  the  leaves  which  to  their  happy  notes 
Keep  tenour,  just  as  from  branch  to  branch 
Along  the  piney  forest,  on  the  shore 
Of  Chassi  rolls  the  gathering  melody." 

Dante  knows  just   when  silence  is  more 

eloquent  than  speech.      He    detects    those 

moments  when  two  or  three  words  contain 

more  power  than  a  hundred,   but  he  also 

255 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

knows  of  those  places  where  speech  is  richer 
than  silence,  and  the  man  who  upon  one 
page  is  as  condensed  as  Tacitus  becomes  upon 
the  next  page  as  full  and  free  as  Yirgil.  He 
is  as  mutable  as  water,  which  is  capable  of 
acting  either  as  dewdrop  or  as  ocean. 

His  lessons  as  artist  or  painter,  taken  in 
his  youth,  may  have  added  to  his  love  of 
those  pictures  in  which  his  verse  abounds. 
As  a  painter  he  opens  many  a  canto  which 
he  is  to  close  as  a  philosopher : 

"  It  hath  been  heretofore  my  chance  to  see 
Horsemen  with  martial  order  shifting  camp 
To  onset  sallying  or  in  muster  ranged 
Or  in  retreat  sometimes  outstretched  for  flight, 
Light-armed  squadrons  and  fleet  foragers 
Scouring  thy  plains,  Arezzo,  have  I  seen, 
And  clashing  tournaments  and  telling  jousts — 
Now  with  the  sound  of  trumpets,  now  of  bells, 
Drums  or  signals  made  from  castled  heights 
And  with  inventions  multiform,  our  own 
Or  introduced  from  foreign  land." 

The  power  of  Dante  to  group  details  is 
not  less  than  that  of  those  illustrious  success- 
ors which  time  brought,  in  Shakespeare  and 
Milton.  When  Beatrice  stood  watching,  to 
note  on  the  horizon  the  chariot  of  Christ,  she 
became  a  type  of  such  gentleness  and  affection 
256 


Dante 

that  the  poet  could  but  liken  her  to  a  little 
mother  bird  : 

"  Who  midst  a  leafy  bower 
Has,  in  her  nest,  sat  darkling  through  the  night 
With  her  dear  brood,  impatient  to  discern 
Their  looks  again  and  to  bring  home  their  food, 
In  the  fond  search  unconscious  of  all  toil — 
In  the  long  meanwhile,  on  the  boughs 
That  overhang  the  nest,  with  wakeful  gaze 
Watches  for  sunlight,  nor  till  dawn 
Removeth  from  the  east  her  eager  ken." 

Here  the  "  leafy  bower,"  "  the  waiting  in 
darkness,"  "  impatient  for  light  to  reveal  the 
hidden  faces,"  the  eagerness  to  bring  home 
food,  "the  unconsciousness  of  toil,"  the 
"  sitting  towards  the  east "  that  she  may  de- 
tect the  light  sooner,  watching  for  day  on 
the  leaves  that  overhang  her  nest,  make  up 
that  richness  which  belongs  to  the  universe 
of  an  Infinite  Creator.  The  common  mind 
can  allude  to  a  bird  upon  the  nest  and  can 
join  some  humane  associations  for  inculcat- 
ing lessons  of  mercy  to  the  wild  boys  of  the 
street,  but  a  Dante  alone  can  grasp  the  entire 
scene  and  can  make  the  soul  of  the  little  bird 
stand  for  that  great  human  race  which  in  the 
long  night  of  earth  watches  for  dawn,  and 
in  the  long  shadows  turns  the  face  forever 
257 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

towards  the  sunrise  of  a  morrow.  Dante's 
style  is  all  through  that  of  a  brocaded  silk. 
Five  hundred  years  have  separated  us  from 
much  in  the  poem  that  was  once  powerful 
and  beautiful,  but  enough  remains  to  secure 
for  the  work  a  place  among  the  most  won- 
derful pieces  in  the  literature  of  the  entire 
world. 

What  ought  to  add  value  to  the  poem  is 
the  thought  that  it  helped  lead  Europe  out 
of  error  and  to  create  for  it  those  waves  of 
light  which  soon  began  to  roll  after  each 
other  over  Germany,  France  and  England. 
The  verses  were  perhaps  most  powerful  in 
the  Fourteenth  Century.  They  were  recited 
in  the  clubs  and  parlours  of  Italy  and  France, 
and  were  sung  in  the  streets.  They  were  so 
fall  of  sentiment,  thought  and  rapture  that 
while  they  were  laying  the  foundations  of 
political  law  they  were  inspiring  all  the  arts, 
and  while  they  were  the  preludes  of  the 
Reformation  in  religion  and  politics  they 
made  Angelo  and  Eaphael  appear  in  the 
arena  of  beauty.  These  harmonious  verses 
differed  from  these  of  Anakreon  which  would 
not  sound  anything  but  love.  These  Italian 
lines  not  only  sang  love  as  Greek  or  Latin 
sang'  it,  but  they  made  liberty  as  eloquent 

258 


Dante 

as  love,  and  leave  us  to  wonder  whether 
Beatrice  was  not  herself  an  emblem  of  that 
Supreme  Wisdom,  all  whose  ways  are  pleas- 
antness and  peace. 


259 


xn 

MAKTIN  LUTHEK1 

HEKE  we  are  in  the  closing  years  of  the 
Nineteenth  Century.  Beyond  doubt  it 
is  the  greatest  Century  ever  lived  by  man- 
kind. Some  old  periods  were  great  in  archi- 
tecture, others  in  war,  others  in  abstract 
philosophy,  others  in  an  ascetic  religion  like 
that  of  India,  others  in  external  magnificence 
like  those  of  Babylon  and  Carthage,  but  this 
century  contains  all  the  valuable  forms  of 
eminence  which  marked  the  past,  and  to 
those  forms  of  thought  and  sentiment  it 
adds  its  own  unrivalled  stores.  Compared 
with  the  present,  old  commerce  and  old  phi- 
losophy and  old  industry  and  old  science  and 
old  religion  were  only  infants  reaching  out 
childish  hands  to  play.  We  find  ourselves 
on  the  banks  of  such  a  stream  of  intellectual 
and  moral  power  as  never  flowed  through 
the  nations  founded  by  the  Pharaohs  or  con- 
quered by  Caesar  or  coveted  by  the  early 
popes. 

1  Born  November  10,  1483  ;  died  February  18,  1546. 
260 


Martin  Luther 

We  dare  not  boast,  for  little  of  this  triumph 
comes  from  us.  As  individuals  we  are  only 
witnesses  at  the  spectacle,  without  being  our- 
selves the  amazing  scene.  We  are  to  add 
our  souls  to  the  vast  fact,  but  it  did  not  come 
from  us.  We  are  like  the  humble  crowd 
which  received  and  welcomed  Jesus.  He  was 
greater  than  they.  He  arose  in  the  far-off 
mountains  and  porches  of  meditation  and 
study,  and  then  moved  down  upon  the  com- 
mon fields  of  Palestine.  The  crowd  wel- 
comed Him  and  afterwards  became  changed 
into  His  likeness.  Thus  our  modern  glory 
of  politics  and  science  and  art  and  law  and 
benevolence  has  flowed  down  to  us,  and  we 
welcome  it  with  many  a  hosanna,  but  instead 
of  being  its  whole  cause  we  are  blessed  for- 
ever if  we  are  changed  into  its  image.  As 
the  thick  soil  is  formed  by  the  leaves  and 
grasses  which  fall  upon  the  earth  and  dis- 
solve into  it,  so  the  richness  of  our  century 
is  the  result  of  that  human  foliage  which 
budded  and  bloomed  and  perished  long  ago. 
How  long  the  human  race  has  thus  been  liv- 
ing and  dying  we  know  not,  but  it  is  possible 
that  we  are  twenty  thousand  years  away 
from  the  first  prayers  to  God  and  from  the 
first  tears  that  ever  fell  upon  a  grave.  If 
261 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

Newton,  while  thinking  of  the  stars,  felt  that 
he  was  only  a  child  on  the  shores  of  a  sea, 
so  may  we,  in  looking  back  at  the  spectacle 
of  man,  feel  that  we  are  only  children  stand- 
ing by  a  measureless  wave.  Our  hearts  are 
emptied  of  all  egotism,  and  from  boasting 
we  fall  to  praying  for  the  privilege  of  help- 
ing onward  the  advancing  world. 

The  causes  of  this  stream  are  back  of  us. 
To  enumerate  them  would  be  the  study  of 
the  entire  history  of  man.  They  must  be 
passed  by  to  make  room  for  a  single  in- 
fluence— that  of  some  peculiar  individual 
man.  Some  single,  rare  mind  of  man  or 
woman  appears  upon  the  scene  in  this  age 
or  that  and  causes  a  commotion  of  ideas  by 
its  own  momentum.  It  has  not  always  been 
a  man.  The  names  of  Esther  and  Zenobia 
and  Koland  and  De  Stae'l  are  enough  to  as- 
sure us  that  had  not  man  fettered  and  de- 
graded woman,  power  would  have  been  seen 
in  the  whole  past  issuing  from  the  lofty  souls 
of  woman  and  man.  From  the  nature  of  so- 
ciety power  has  been  developed  in  man,  and 
his  has  been  the  hand  that  has  made  and  un- 
made the  most  evil  and  the  most  good.  If 
woman  has  been  denied  power  she  has  thus 
escaped  the  charge  of  having  brought  so 
262 


Martin  Luther 

many  nations  to  ruin.  Man  has  touched  all, 
and  has  ruined  much  upon  which  his  hand 
has  fallen.  Babylon  fell  under  his  vices, 
Rome  under  his  sin  and  war.  But  at  times 
there  has  appeared  a  soul  as  full  of  mo- 
mentum as  an  ocean  wave.  "  Sons  of  God  " 
these  are  called  in  the  rich  poetry  of  the 
Orient.  "We,  too,  would  thus  speak  of  all 
gifted  ones  had  not  our  Northern  zone  car- 
ried us  away  from  that  highly  wrought, 
emotional  nature  which  traces  quickly  the 
glory  of  the  Deity  and  of  human  life.  The 
same  parallels  of  latitude  which  separate  us 
from  the  aromas  of  the  warm  lands,  from 
the  frankincense  and  myrrh,  separate  us  also 
from  their  affectionate  language,  and  we 
bury  as  a  man  one  whom  Arabia  and  Asia 
would  have  lamented  as  a  "  Son  of  God." 
To  the  power  of  climate  and  race  to  hush 
the  words  of  poetry,  perhaps  also  machines 
and  inventions  and  discoveries  are  adding 
their  temptation  to  us  to  look  to  these  for 
help  rather  than  to  the  individual  soul.  We 
may  be  transferring  our  love  over  to  steam 
and  electricity,  and  are  yearly  thinking  less 
of  such  a  living  soul  as  that  which  we  call 
Jesus,  of  Paul,  or  Savonarola,  or  Luther.  If 
so,  it  is  our  error  and  our  loss,  for  the  truth 

263 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

is  that  our  world  does  not  tremble  under  the 
pulsations  of  the  engine  so  much  as  under 
the  beatings  of  the  heart,  the  rumbling  of 
the  locomotive  being  heard  not  half  so  far 
as  the  footstep  of  a  great  man. 

Luther  repeated  history  by  being  born  in 
humble  life.  The  wheels  of  youth  rest  or 
rust  in  riches;  in  poverty  they  all  run. 
Wealth  says,  How  shall  I  enjoy  myself? 
Poverty  says,  What  labour  shall  I  perform  ? 
Out  of  the  former  come  those  who  play ; 
out  of  the  latter  those  who  work.  But  this 
scarcity  of  money  must  be  joined  to  a  great 
degree  of  sensibility  and  culture  inherited 
from  ancestors  or  found  in  the  earliest  sur- 
roundings of  youth.  For  if  poverty  alone 
were  able  to  make  greatness  the  African 
tribes  and  the  Zulus  should  be  supplying  the 
world  with  statesmen,  and  the  mud  huts  of 
New  Mexico  should  be  sending  forth  poetry. 
That  hardness  of  childhood  that  grows 
mental  force  must  be  attached  to  an  awak- 
ened mind ;  it  must  be  a  hardness  like  that 
of  Shakespeare  and  Franklin  and  Lincoln  in 
hearts  surrounded  by  civilization.  There  are 
women  in  India  who  have  more  sorrow  than 
fell  to  the  lot  of  the  Bronte  sisters ;  but  in 
India  the  suffering  is  not  joined  to  a  cultured 
264 


Martin  Luther 

brain.  Thus  it  is  hardship  and  civilization 
combined  that  make  the  wheels  of  the  brain 
go.  The  infant  Luther  enjoyed  such  a  two- 
fold impulse.  Christ  was  indeed  born  in  a 
manger,  but  that  manger  was  carpeted  with 
all  the  wisdom  of  the  East,  and  canopied  by 
the  love  of  an  enlightened  mother,  so  that 
while  the  little  body  of  Jesus  was  near  the 
straw  and  hay  His  soul  was  where  Greek 
and  Roman  and  Hebrew  wisdom  and  taste 
combined  to  make  a  new  air.  Thus  Frank- 
lin and  Lincoln  were  born  in  poverty  of 
money  but  in  the  perfect  splendour  of  liberty 
and  education  and  hope. 

Luther  was  the  son  of  a  slate-digger  and 
cutter  who  had  refinement  enough  to  desire 
to  educate  his  little  boy  up  to  the  highest 
standard  of  the  period.  When  the  child  was 
only  six  months  of  age  the  parents  moved  to 
where  there  could  be  found  in  a  few  years 
the  good  of  education.  Thus  the  natural 
power  of  the  child  enjoyed  that  advantage 
found  in  the  ambition  of  its  father.  If  it 
was  not  heir  to  gold,  it  was  born  to  an  es- 
tate of  parental  solicitude  and  ambition. 
Much  of  German  eminence  among  men  had 
come  from  the  devotion  of  father  and  mother 
to  the  care  of  each  child.  As  each  Hebrew 
265 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

mother  had  a  remote  suspicion  that  perhaps 
her  boy  was  to  be  the  saviour  of  Israel,  so 
each  German  parent  easily  reached  the  con- 
clusion that  the  nation  had  long  been  wait- 
ing for  his  son  to  appear ;  and  so  far  as 
lay  in  their  power  the  German  fathers 
and  mothers  urged  their  offspring  onward 
towards  a  dreamed-of  destiny.  Stilling  and 
Mozart  and  Beethoven  and  Goethe  were  not 
only  born  to  great  powers,  but  also  were 
whipped  to  success  by  their  fathers.  All 
complain  of  the  pitiless  cruelty  of  their  early 
surroundings.  Stilling's  father  whipped  him 
almost  daily.  To  common  cruelty  the  father 
of  Beethoven  added  drunkenness  ;  but  yet  so 
anxious  was  he  that  his  son  should  become 
an  extraordinary  musician  that  he  falsified 
regarding  the  child's  age  that  he  might  seem 
the  more  a  prodigy.  In  keeping  with  this 
record  Luther  came  to  the  task  of  life  miser- 
ably flogged  all  through  his  first  ten  years. 
And  what  omission  of  the  birchen  switch 
may  have  occurred  at  home  was  fully  atoned 
for  by  the  zeal  of  the  village  schoolmaster, 
and  between  the  home  and  the  schoolhouse 
no  lesson  of  duty  or  piety  remained  free  from 
this  barbarous  mode  of  enforcement. 
In  mature  life  Luther  looked  back  with 
266 


Martin  Luther 

something  of  sorrow  upon  such  treatment — 
sorrow  for  himself  and  sorrow  for  the  mis- 
takes of  those  whom  he  deeply  loved.  He 
wrote :  "  My  parents  treated  me  so  cruelly 
that  I  became  timid.  They  felt  that  they 
were  sincerely  right,  but  they  had  no  dis- 
cernment of  character  that  would  have  en- 
abled them  to  know  when  and  upon  whom 
and  how  punishment  should  be  inflicted." 
While  our  times  have  no  sympathy  with  this 
brutality  it  cannot  but  look  with  approval 
and  delight  upon  the  parental  care  and  am- 
bition which  encompassed  all  these  great 
children  in  their  old  German  homes.  In 
framing  an  explanation  of  many  of  the  lead- 
ing men  of  the  whole  past  we  must  find  a 
part  of  the  causes  of  things  to  rest  in  the 
culture  and  ambition  of  the  father  and 
mother.  Cicero's  father  moved  to  Rome 
that  he  might  educate  his  boy.  Augustine's 
mother  cared  for  her  child  with  an  infinite 
enthusiasm  until  he  had  reached  almost 
middle  life.  She  lived  for  him  alone. 

Thus  out  of  a  poor  home  as  to  money,  but 
out  of  a  good  home  as  to  judgment  and  am- 
bition and  piety,  came  upward  the  mind 
which  was  to  turn  the  stream  of  the  Western 
thought  and  life.  In  imagination  we  can 
267 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

picture  this  youth  of  fourteen  leaving  his 
home  that  he  might  attend  a  school  that 
should  prepare  him  for  the  university.  He 
performed  the  journey  on  foot  and  carried  in 
a  knapsack  all  his  worldly  possessions.  Rude 
as  his  home  had  been,  the  scene  before  him 
was  so  dreary  that  it  made  the  cottage  be- 
hind him  seem  an  enchanted  ground ;  and  as 
he  moved  away  from  the  charm  of  the  one 
and  towards  the  hardship  of  the  other  the 
tears  rolled  down  his  cheeks.  Once  located 
at  the  school  he  sang  songs  under  the  win- 
dows of  the  rich  and  supported  himself  by 
what  small  coins  fell  at  his  feet.  He  per- 
formed this  musical  circuit  thrice  each  week. 
At  last  his  voice,  rich  in  itself,  but  made 
more  touching  by  his  poverty,  won  the  sym- 
pathy of  a  woman  of  wealth,  and  out  of 
these  songs  under  a  window  came  a  woman's 
kindness,  which  paid  for  four  years  of  edu- 
cation in  that  school  and  for  a  home  in  the 
house  won  by  his  music.  You  can  recall  the 
picture.  A  boy  singing  in  front  of  the 
quaint  house  of  Dame  Ursula  Cotta.  A 
kind  face  comes  to  the  window  and  looks 
and  listens.  Weeks  and  months  pass  and  by 
degrees  the  dame  begins  to  wish  that  the 
little  Martin  Luther  would  come  again. 
268 


Martin  Luther 

Each  week  the  coins  the  kind  hand  tosses  out 
increase  in  size  or  in  number.  At  last  the 
woman  talks  with  the  boy,  and  hears  the 
simple  story  of  his  struggles  and  hopes.  She 
at  last  says :  "  Well,  you  need  not  sing  for 
money  any  more.  I  shall  help  thee  on- 
ward." 

It  must  be  a  matter  of  conjecture  what 
were  the  songs  he  thus  offered  along  the 
streets.  The  Minnesingers  who  went  from 
place  to  place  with  their  love-songs  died 
away  in  the  Fourteenth  Century.  The  Six- 
teenth Century  was  in  the  outset  religious  in 
Germany.  Michelet  says  Luther  inherited 
poverty  and  piety.  But  after  all  is  said  re- 
garding the  religious  drift  and  even  supersti- 
tion of  the  times,  there  remained  much 
margin  in  mind  and  heart  to  be  filled  up 
with  the  common  songs  of  sentiment  and 
passion.  As  mankind  never  becomes  too 
pious  to  fall  in  love,  it  is  not  probable  that 
any  age  ever  passed  which  sang  only  hymns 
in  the  streets.  Luther  may  have  offered 
some  religious  piece  at  some  appropriate 
lattice,  but  when  the  face  half  visible  showed 
features  of  beauty  and  youth  the  sentimental 
music  of  the  universal  heart  must  have 
brought  him  the  most  money.  This  Martin 
269 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

played  well  on  the  guitar,  but  his  voice  needed 
no  accompaniment. 

Mark  the  quality  of  his  studies  in  these 
formative  years, — grammar,  rhetoric,  poetry 
and  music.  Upon  such  a  course  our  age  has 
not  made  much  improvement.  Our  period 
offers  more  facts — those  of  science  and 
history — but  it  offers  less  of  inspiration. 
Facts  are  a  poor  substitute  with  the  young 
mind  for  rhetoric  and  poetry  because  these 
are  the  wings  of  the  soul,  whereas  facts  can 
be  acquired  and  retained  by  a  man  without 
a  soul.  Either  method  is  in  itself  defective. 
A  perfect  course  would  be  that  which  should 
combine  the  acquisition  of  knowledge  with 
the  highest  development  of  language  and 
rhetoric  and  the  imagination.  It  was  the 
good  fortune  of  this  German  youth,  and  of 
the  world  through  him,  that  he  became 
strong  in  music  and  poetry  and  language, 
for  these  helped  him  to  rise  to  an  enthusiasm 
which  was  able  to  burn  like  an  eternal  fire. 
When  the  times  needed  impetuosity  Luther 
became  impetuous  ;  when  inspiration  was 
asked  for  this  man  became  inspired.  Yast 
learning  would  have  quieted  that  heart  which 
was  needed  not  as  a  library,  but  as  a  burning 
torch. 

270 


Martin  Luther 

Towards  such  a  restless  zeal  these  studies 
all  pointed.  Poetry  underlies  more  heroism 
than  learning  alone  can  boast.  It,  only,  rises 
above  the  common  things  of  the  shop  and 
market-place,  and  perceives  the  immensity  of 
human  and  divine  affairs.  The  heart,  which 
could  proceed  to  the  city  of  Worms  to  meet 
perhaps  death,  was  the  heart  which  could,  the 
day  before  the  journey  began,  compose  the 
words  and  the  music  of  a  hymn  that  seemed 
fully  able  to  sustain  its  author.  The  poet 
was  the  hero. 

"  A  tower  safe  our  God  is  still  ; 
A  trusty  shield  and  weapon  ; 
He'll  help  us  clear  from  all  the  ill 
That  hath  us  overtaken." 

Thirty-six  such  lines  as  these  sung  in  the 
outset  and  chanted  in  the  choir  of  the  soul 
were  the  band  of  music  for  that  march  of  one 
man  against  the  potentates  of  the  age.  His 
prose  was  all  ornamented,  like  a  wall  covered 
with  vines.  Speaking  of  a  tree  laden  with 
ripe  fruit,  he  said :  "  Had  Adam  not  sinned, 
we  should  have  seen  the  beauty  of  these 
things ;  every  bush  and  shrub  would  have 
seemed  more  lovely  than  though  it  were 
made  of  gold  and  silver.  It  is  really  more 
271 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

lovely,  but  we  are  stupid  as  beasts.  God's 
power  and  wisdom  are  shown  in  the  smallest 
flowers.  Painters  cannot  rival  their  colour, 
nor  perfumers  their  sweetness ;  green,  yellow, 
crimson,  blue  and  purple— all  growing  out  of 
one  earth.  We  trample  upon  the  lilies  as 
though  we  were  so  many  cows." 

Poetry  is  not  in  itself  a  divine  power,  for 
Cowper  and  Wordsworth  could  not  have  led 
in  a  revolution.  Neither  could  Yirgil.  But 
when  the  poetic  sentiment  is  joined  to  a 
great  soul  it  becomes  an  irrepressible  impulse. 
It  does  not  sit  down  and  write  verses,  but  it 
detects  the  joys  and  griefs,  the  rights  and 
wrongs  of  the  people,  and  weeps  and  hopes 
while  mere  learning  reads  or  sleeps.  Like 
Dante  and  Angelo  and  Milton,  Luther  had 
power  as  well  as  fancy.  His  success  as  a 
student  was  very  great.  He  surprised  his 
instructors.  He  was  quick  and  strong  in 
debate,  original,  full  of  vivacity,  rich  in  the 
German  language,  and  was  perhaps  the 
first  great  orator  to  venture  forth  upon 
philosophical  debate  in  the  tongue  of  the 
people.  He  was  a  Latin  scholar  by  the  time 
he  was  twenty,  but  he  preferred  the  German  ; 
he  brought  forward  a  revolution  in  speech 
before  he  led  in  religion,  and  from  him  came 
272 


Martin  Luther 

the  dialect  of  Schiller  and  Goethe  and  Jean 
Paul  Bichter ! 

It  was  the  design  of  the  young  man  to 
study  law.  It  is  singular  that  neither  Luther's 
father  nor  Yalcin's  held  theology  or  the 
priesthood  in  much  esteem.  Each  father  was 
heart-broken  over  the  religious  drift  of  his 
son.  A  comment  this,  not  upon  the  piety  of 
the  fathers,  for  they  were  deeply  devout,  but 
upon  the  condition  of  the  clergy  in  those 
days.  The  vices  of  the  age  had  made  their 
black  mark  upon  many  of  the  monastics. 
Many  monks  who  were  not  dissolute  were 
simply  lazy  beggars.  Luther,  with  all  his 
lofty  powers,  was  to  take  the  path  of  the  law. 
It  offered  some  honour  and  some  industry 
and  money,  and  much  less  hypocrisy. 
Towards  this  the  father  pointed,  and  towards 
it  the  son  turned  his  face. 

For  the  law  the  youth  at  last  had  no  heart. 
Pure  and  innocent  himself,  Luther  saw  the 
Church  through  a  clear,  divine  air.  Its  music 
charmed  him.  And,  moreover^  there  often 
come  to  young  hearts  melancholy  years.  It 
would  seem  that  early  life  should  produce 
nothing  but  smiles  and  laughter.  Youth  is 
thus  pictured  by  painter  and  poet,  and  in 
general  it  is  full  of  joy  or  peace ;  but  for 
2/3 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

some  unknown  cause  Nature  inserts  a  mel- 
ancholy year  between  ten  and  twenty-five. 
Tears  come  easily.  The  heart  is  morbidly 
sensitive.  It  writes  farewell  notes  to  friends. 
The  soul  loves  to  creep  into  its  corner  and 
distrust  the  voice  of  love.  A  few  hearts 
thus  in  life's  sweet  morning  wholly  break, 
and  suicide  ends  the  scene.  The  wave  of 
sadness  rose  high  around  this  gifted  youth. 
The  storm  may  have  come  from  injured 
health,  but  more  probably  it  came  from  un- 
seen recesses  in  the  spirit.  No  path  of  duty 
seemed  clearly  defined.  But  as  he  walked 
in  a  field  with  a  fellow  student  a  bolt  of 
lightning  killed  the  companion  in  an  instant, 
and  left  Luther  still  in  the  world.  Full  of 
superstition  the  astounded  youth  fell  on  his 
knees  and  vowed  all  his  powers  to  God.  He 
entered  a  convent,  and  thus  began  the  Eef- 
ormation.  It  was  kindled  by  a  flash  of 
lightning. 

A  fact  must  be  mentioned  here  which  will 
betray  at  once  the  need  of  an  overthrow  of 
the  past.  The  cup  of  folly  was  full.  The 
people  had  been  long  enough  fed  upon  the 
marvellous  stories  of  ascetics  and  idlers  and 
miracle-mongers.  Luther  went  into  the  con- 
vent  taking  with  him  two  books,  the  only 
274 


Martin  Luther 

books,  perhaps,  he  possessed.  "What  were 
they?  Were  they  the  Testaments  full  of 
the  simple  godlike  life  of  Jesus  and  of  the 
labours  and  teachings  and  glories  of  St.  Paul 
and  St.  John  and  the  lofty  strains  of  Job  and 
David  and  Isaiah  ?  Oh,  no  !  This  educated 
youth  of  the  Sixteenth  Century  took  into  the 
convent  with  him  Yirgil  and  Plautus  !  The 
secret  of  the  Keformation  is  out.  Luther 
had  been  reared  to  manhood  in  the  church 
without  ever  having  seen  the  Bible.  It  was 
almost  a  lost  volume.  Where  existing,  it 
was  in  a  foreign  tongue.  Custom  of  the 
monks  had  become  the  standard  of  morals 
and  the  basis  of  all  doctrine. 

Yirgil  and  Plautus  were  pleasant  books, 
but  not  adequate  to  the  production  of  a  civ- 
ilization. ^Eneas  and  Dido  figured  largely 
in  the  oddities  of  St.  Augustine  while  he  was 
in  pagan  clouds.  But,  as  it  was,  Luther  took 
into  the  convent  too  much  logic  and  rhetoric 
and  fervour,  for  the  most  aged  monks  in  the 
monastery  soon  became  alarmed  at  the  life 
and  wisdom  and  force  of  the  new  comrade, 
and  they  held  a  secret  meeting  to  determine 
how  to  check  the  unsaintly  manners  of  the 
young  devotee.  A  venerable  ecclesiastic 
declared  such  a  love  of  books  to  be  sinful, 
275 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

that  it  elevated  too  much  the  individual 
mind  when  it  ought  to  sit  prostrate,  meekly 
submissive  to  the  high  dispensation  of  the 
superiors  !  Luther  was  condemned  to  be  the 
man-of-all-work  for  the  convent,  and  for 
three  years  he  swung  the  broom,  carried  the 
wood,  scrubbed  the  stairs,  and  then  with 
the  company  of  a  pack-mule,  he  begged  food 
from  door  to  door.  "  This,"  said  the  rev- 
erend theologians,  "  will  break  his  spirit  of 
self-importance." 

In  their  prophecy  they  were  mistaken,  for 
the  same  mind  which  had  combined  drudgery 
and  study  in  boyhood  could  do  so  again  in 
mature  life.  The  stream  of  Luther's  piety 
and  logic  and  study  ran  straight  on,  his 
hours  with  the  pack-mule  being  hours  of 
meditation,  and  more  valuable  than  hours 
with  the  monks.  In  his  mind  the  truths  of 
religion  gradually  fell  into  a  shape  quite 
different  from  the  forms  and  customs  which 
had  come  down  from  the  dark  ages. 

All  gifts  of  learning  and  genius  would 
have  been  vain  had  not  Luther  possessed 
piety.  His  soul  was  sincerely  religious.  God 
and  Jesus  Christ  were  loved,  and  lived  for, 
and  trusted.  Christianity  was  not  a  form, 
but  it  was  his  joy  and  his  hope.  In  fervour 
276 


Martin  Luther 

he  was  more  like  Mme.  Guyon  and  Fenelon 
to  come  after  him  than  like  those  who  had 
passed  before  him.  His  hymns  were  not 
full  of  theology  but  of  affection  : 

Thou  strong  defense,  Thou  Holy  Light, 
Teach  us  to  know  our  God  aright, 
And  call  Him  Father  from  the  heart ; 
The  Word  of  Life  and  Truth  impart 
That  we  may  love  not  doctrines  strange, 
Nor  e'er  to  other  teachers  range, 
But  Jesus  for  our  Master  own 
And  put  our  trust  in  Him  alone. 
Hallelujah,  Hallelujah  ! 

Thou  sacred  Ardour,  Comfort  Sweet, 
Help  us  to  wait  with  ready  feet 
And  willing  heart  at  Thy  command, 
Nor  trial  fright  us  from  Thy  band. 
Lord,  make  us  ready  with  Thy  power — 
Strengthen  the  flesh  in  weaker  hour, 
That  as  good  warriors  we  may  force 
Through  life  and  death  to  Thee  our  course. 
Hallelujah,  Hallelujah  ! 

Such  was  the  personal  approach  of  Luther 
towards  an  unseen  but  vast  work.  His 
learning,  his  natural  power,  his  honesty,  his 
fervour,  his  stubborn  will  and  his  unequalled 
courage  fitted  him  to  be  a  leader  from  dark- 
ness to  light.  He  was  one  of  those  whose 
life  shines  in  history  like  a  sun  in  the  sky. 
277 


XIII 
VICTOK  HUGO ' 

IT  is  common  to  look  upon  France  as  the 
home  of  atheism.  But  such  an  estimate 
of  the  condition  of  faith  in  that  country  is 
far  from  being  true.  Of  the  36,000,000  of 
the  French  population  34,000,000  are  Roman 
Catholics  ;  a  little  over  1,000,000  are  Protes- 
tants, thus  leaving  1,000,000  within  which  all 
the  forms  of  anti-religious  sentiment  are  to 
enact  their  various  parts.  In  a  census  taken 
a  few  years  ago  only  85,000  persons  were 
recorded  as  having  no  belief  or  an  anti-Chris- 
tian belief.  Thus  out  of  36,000,000  only  one 
person  in  4,000  is  to  be  quoted  as  indifferent 
or  opposed  to  the  forms  and  ideas  of  religion. 
From  the  common  fame  about  France,  with 
the  history  of  the  Revolution  and  Reign  of 
Terror  and  Commune,  we  have  all  felt  that 
this  was  the  one  godless  nation  of  Europe. 
Against  this  common  fame  we  are  met  by 
the  fact  that  of  the  population  of  France 

1Born  February  26,  1802  ;  died  May  22,  1885. 
2/8 


Victor  Hugo 

more  than  ninety-nine  per  cent,  are  Chris- 
tians. 

But  this  surprising  fact  will  not  explain  all 
and  contradict  all,  because  we  must  remember 
that  the  world  is  not  governed  by  majorities, 
not  even  by  so  large  a  majority  as  ninety-nine 
per  centum.  France  has,  in  one  instance,  been 
atheistic  for  a  brief  period,  but  it  was  such 
by  a  coup  d'etat.  In  that  method  of  seizing 
an  empire  sometimes  a  thousand  brave  men 
will  equal  a  million  citizens.  For  the  most 
part  Paris  has  been  France ;  just  as  the  city 
of  Mexico  has  always  been  the  whole  nation. 
At  a  recent  Mexican  election  of  high  officials 
not  one  man  in  ten  took  the  trouble  to  go  to 
the  polls  to  vote.  The  voting  was  all  done 
by  a  few  thousands  who  had  some  individual 
interests  in  the  result.  Thus  in  France,  Paris 
has  generally  attended  to  all  the  political 
business  ;  and  thus  a  group  of  a  million  and  a 
half  has  really  stood  for  the  entire  mass  of 
thirty-six  millions. 

Of  the  enormous  religious  population 
thirty-five  millions  are  Koman  Catholics, 
and  the  tendency  of  that  church  has  always 
been  to  sink  the  individuality  of  the  man,  to 
make  the  common  millions  full  of  timidity 
and  obsequiousness,  and  to  concentrate  in 
279 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

ecclesiastical  potentates  what  personal  hero- 
ism the  Church  could  produce.  We  have  in 
France  the  most  decidedly  Koman  Catholic 
country  in  the  world;  the  one  empire  to 
which  the  Pope  has  always  looked  for  sup- 
port, Spain  not  being  excepted.  But  in 
battling  against  rationalism  and  what  little 
atheism  there  existed,  these  ecclesiastical 
millions  could  do  but  little.  At  any  time  of 
the  Revolution  Paris  contained  only  a  little 
more  than  half  a  million  of  inhabitants. 
Thus  the  enormous  throng  of  nominal  Chris- 
tians was  spread  out  in  a  nation  whose 
domain  was  600  miles  long  by  400  miles 
wide.  Furthermore,  of  this  religious  popula- 
tion about  one-third  of  those  over  six  years 
of  age  could  not  read  or  write.  As  there 
were  no  railways  or  telegraphs  it  is  almost 
certain  that  the  changes  of  political  situations 
lay  in  the  hands  of  the  great  central  city  and 
a  half  score  of  large  towns. 

Thus  it  came  to  pass  that  the  few  atheists 
who  finally  figured  in  the  Revolution  were 
concentrated  in  Paris,  and  were  men  of  great 
daring  because  they  were  the  children  of  the 
new  thought  and  new  mental  power  which 
at  the  same  time  had  made  our  Paine  and 
Franklin  and  the  great  deists  of  Europe, 


Victor  Hugo 

The  French  Eevolution  did  not  come  from 
irreligion,  but  from  the  most  awful  and  long- 
continued  oppression  and  criminality  of  the 
throne.  The  Koman  Catholics  hated  the 
Government  with  a  hatred  based  upon  rob- 
bery and  starvation.  A  terrible  famine  had 
made  many  thousands  of  beggars  take  refuge 
in  Paris,  and  when  the  States  General  was 
called  to  attempt  to  secure  some  rights  for 
the  people  these  were  in  the  city  ready  for 
anything  that  might  offer  hope  of  a  change, 
for  a  change  could  not  be  for  the  worse.  In 
the  States  General  elected,  the  first  class 
contained  291  clergymen,  in  the  third  class 
there  were  nearly  500  of  the  better  members 
of  the  people.  It  was  in  the  chaos  which 
came  along  slowly  that  a  few  atheists  got 
possession  of  the  reins  of  power.  Even  this 
group  was  divided,  for  Eobespierre  declared 
himself  against  Danton  and  avowed  himself 
as  eager  to  set  up  a  government  which  should 
confess  God  and  the  immortality  of  the  soul. 
Foreign  nations  were  making  use  of  the  sor- 
rows of  France  to  invade  her  territory,  and 
in  the  midst  of  such  a  babel  some  brilliant 
atheists  passed  into  power.  But  this  reign 
was  of  short  duration.  This  godless  party 
became  the  disgust  of  the  millions  of  Koman- 
281 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

ists  and  Protestants.  The  atheists  were  to 
erase  the  history  of  the  world,  and  they  or- 
dered a  new  chronology  to  begin.  They 
were  to  date  letters  and  documents  with  the 
year  "1."  Having  ample  power  thus  to 
name  their  first  year  they  had  no  method  of 
establishing  a  succession,  and  year  "  1 "  never 
advanced  to  year  "  2." 

These  statements  seem  necessary  to  re- 
mind us  that  Victor  Hugo  was  not  the  prod- 
uct of  an  atheistic  nation,  because  there  was 
or  is  no  such  a  nation ;  but  rather  was  he  the 
true  child  of  that  great  rationalism  which 
began  to  purify  the  air  in  the  Christian 
Pascal  and  the  deist  Yoltaire.  The  Roman 
Church  would  not  open  to  admit  a  new  truth 
or  to  reject  an  old  error.  The  great  mass  of 
religious  barnacles  the  holy  ship  had  culti- 
vated and  carried  along  in  the  Dark  Ages  it 
attempted  to  carry  along  through  the  Seven- 
teenth and  Eeighteenth  Centuries.  It  denied 
they  were  barnacles,  and  called  them  pearls. 
There  was  no  progress  of  knowledge  possible 
in  that  denomination.  This  fact  made  neces- 
sary a  belief  that  should  be  not  only  outside 
of  the  Church,  but  even  full  of  wit  and  re- 
sistless logic  against  that  venerable  organism. 

The  Protestant  forms  of  Christianity  had 
282 


Victor  Hugo 

been  less  hostile  to  reason,  but  they  had  a 
horror  of  the  hearts  of  the  children  of  the 
Pope.  An  outside  religion  thus  became 
necessary  unless  men  would  consent  to  dis- 
pense with  the  use  of  reason.  This  was  so 
large  a  price  to  pay  that  minds  by  nature  re- 
ligious were  compelled  to  live  and  die  with 
a  faith  partly  beautiful  but  partly  injured  by 
neglect  and  lifelong  argument.  Some  few, 
like  Lamartine,  stood  with  one  foot  on  the 
old  altar,  but  these  were  detained  there  more 
by  the  French  romance  than  by  any  regard 
for  the  moss-covered  human  theology.  The 
sentiments  detained  many  to  whom  the 
reason  was  pointing  a  different  road. 

"What  a  brilliant  group  was  this  !  Mme. 
De  Stael  and  Napoleon  were  in  it.  There 
stood  also  Yictor  Cousin,  who  perhaps  more 
than  any  man  of  our  century  helped  turn 
the  young  generations  of  France  away  from 
the  philosophy  of  atheism  and  towards  that 
of  God.  He  was  imprisoned  for  a  short 
time  by  the  influence  of  the  priesthood,  but 
he  came  forth  to  stand  wholly  outside  the 
earthly  churches,  yet  evidently  wholly  inside 
of  the  church  of  the  heavenly  Father.  Un- 
der his  touch  religion  became  founded  upon 
the  deepest  reason,  and  was  seen  as  the  ab- 

283 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

solute  fountain  of  human  greatness.  He 
was  a  pupil  of  the  Eoyer-Collard,  who  spent 
his  life  in  a  high  philosophy  drawn  from  all 
the  noble  minds,  from  Keid  of  Scotland  back 
to  Plato  of  the  Greeks.  Time  would  fail  us 
to  mark  those  great  names  which  were  com- 
pelled, passing  life  in  France,  to  cherish  their 
religious  sentiments  out  in  that  open  air 
where  the  spirit  of  reason  could  associate 
with  the  spirit  of  worship,  and  where  man 
could  be  true  to  his  God  without  being  false 
to  himself. 

In  the  midst  of  this  large  class,  but  more 
grand  than  numerous,  stood  Victor  Hugo  in 
his  long  life,  and  now  in  his  grave  he  sleeps 
with  them.  He  was  the  ripe  fruit  of  that 
Voltairism  which  could  not  call  folly  by  the 
name  of  inspiration,  nor  a  career  of  sins  and 
errors  by  the  name  of  infallibility ;  but  to  the 
strength  of  Voltaire  he  added  the  rich  poetry 
of  Lamartine,  and  thus  he  contained  the  vir- 
tues of  two  great  intellects.  He  bids  us  re- 
member that  France  produces  two  kinds  of 
human  beings :  the  luxuriant  animal  and  the 
luxuriant  soul — men  who  will  deny  the  being 
of  a  God  and  live  for  only  the  object  of 
transient  sense ;  and  men  who  will  place  be- 
fore us  a  religion  full  of  fervour  and  colour- 
284 


Victor  Hugo 

ing,  a  religion  as  rich  as  the  many-tinted 
window  of  a  cathedral,  when  seen  while  the 
highest  music  is  sounding  a  vesper  for  the 
heart.  French  religion,  when  it  has  come 
to  us  through  some  of  its  noblest  minds, 
has  come  in  a  most  impressive  form,  having 
in  it  much  of  that  delicacy  and  ornament 
which  distinguishes  the  French  mind  from 
the  mind  that  speaks  and  argues  under  more 
northern  skies.  Chateaubriand,  although  a 
Romanist,  was  so  modernized  by  the  re- 
flex influence  of  the  Rationalists,  that  his 
"  Genius  of  Christianity "  came  to  the 
world  more  like  a  lofty  poem  than  like  a 
treatise  from  a  theologian.  His  wide  read- 
ing, his  travels  in  all  lands,  his  dreamings  in 
the  forests  of  America,  when  General  Wash- 
ington became  his  friend,  his  poetic  medita- 
tions in  the  land  of  Christ  and  the  apostles, 
his  poems — "  Atala  "  and  "  Rene  " — his  nov- 
els, betrayed  and  created  an  eloquence  which 
made  Christianity  repose  upon  the  day  of  un- 
belief like  the  rainbow  upon  black  clouds. 
The  general  truths  of  religion  came  from  his 
hand  as  beautiful  and  pure  as  the  marbles 
from  the  sculptor's  studio.  The  civilized 
world  had  never  before  seen  the  height  and 
depth  of  the  sentiment  of  God,  the  Son  of 
285 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

God,  and  immortal  life.  He  had  been  a 
rationalist,  and  almost  a  free-thinker,  but  he 
returned  to  the  established  Romanism  as 
being  the  best  hope  of  humanity. 

In  looking  at  these  forerunners  of  Hugo, 
we  must  not  omit  the  name  of  Larnennais. 
He,  too,  was  one  of  the  eloquent  souls  for 
which  French  religion  has  been  very  remark- 
able. Lamennais  remained  in  the  mother 
church  until  he  had  reached  his  forty-sixth 
year.  But  in  the  later  of  those  years,  he  had 
with  so  much  power  advocated  liberty  of  re- 
ligion, freedom  of  speech,  that  when  he  an- 
nounced his  withdrawal  from  Rome  he  had 
not  far  to  go.  The  volume  he  published  at 
the  time  went  through  a  hundred  editions 
before  its  grand  style  and  language  sank  into 
silence.  It  was  the  song  of  the  new  world. 

These  names  will  serve  to  remind  us  that 
France  is  not  atheistic  ;  but  she  has  come  to 
that  condition  of  education  and  liberty  which 
makes  her  greatest  minds  prefer  to  stand 
outside  of  the  Church  and  perhaps  aloof  from 
the  public  religion.  The  Roman  Church  in 
its  refusal  to  learn  the  truth  has  become  a 
sanctuary  whose  doors  open  outward,  that 
those  in  may  escape.  It  reverses  in  France 
the  gospel  imagery  of  a  feast  to  which  the 
286 


Victor  Hugo 

multitude  were  urged  to  come  in ;  here  this 
feast  is  seen  and  known  to  be  over,  and  the 
honourable  guests  are  compelled  to  retire. 
Many  who  remain  within,  priest  and  people, 
are  in  full  sympathy  with  the  rationalism 
and  republicanism  on  the  outside.  When 
Lamennais  advocated  liberty  and  equality 
the  lower  clergy  were  on  his  side ;  the  higher 
ecclesiastics  were  the  ones  to  oppose  his 
liberal  views.  Even  now  when  riots  and 
barricades  are  prevalent  in  Paris,  the  men 
of  no  religion  are  found  side  by  side  with 
those  who  are  nominal  followers  of  Christ, 
all  these  meeting  on  the  common  ground  of 
hunger,  nakedness,  and  injustice. 

Victor  Hugo  comes  up  before  us  with  the 
same  ardent  belief  in  God  which  has  marked 
many  of  the  greatest  men  of  France.  He  is 
seen  standing  for  a  great  transition  period  in 
which  old  Eomanism  and  old  Calvinism  are 
dying,  and  something  better  is  being  elabo- 
rated in  the  mind  and  heart  of  the  new  epoch. 
Although  his  mind  was  set  to  romance  and 
poetry  like  that  of  Lamartine,  he  possessed 
more  of  unbridled  power,  and  what  he  ut- 
tered regarding  God  added  to  the  sweetness 
of  the  poetic  the  roll  of  thunder.  His  short 
and  sharp  sentences  fell  not  like  an  argument 
287 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

but  like  the  sentence  of  a  final  judgment. 
When  the  Deity  was  introduced  in  novel  or 
drama  or  speech  no  apologies  were  made  for 
His  entrance.  He  came  in  like  a  king.  No 
modern  writer  made  so  little  use  of  miti- 
gating terms.  The  terms  "  perad venture," 
"  perhaps,"  "  presume,"  "  suppose  "  were  sel- 
dom asked  to  perform  any  service.  Water- 
loo was  lost  "because  of  God";  Napoleon 
"  vexed  God  " ;  "  the  shadow  of  an  enormous 
right  hand  rested  upon  Waterloo  " ;  "  God 
passed  over  it."  In  the  last  words  of  Jean 
Yaljean  this  Supreme  Ruler  enters  the  scene 
beautifully,  but  with  no  modifying  particles 
of  doubt  or  contingency.  "  Such  are  the  dis- 
tributions of  God.  He  is  on  high.  He  sees 
us  all,  and  knows  what  He  is  doing  among 
the  great  stars." 

That  individuality  which  made  this  great 
man  seem  an  egotist  clothed  him  with  power 
when  amid  the  world-wide  themes  of  action 
and  opinion.  He  seldom  came  to  a  contem- 
plation of  himself,  and  hence  his  egotism 
consumes  but  few  sentences  in  his  mass  of 
written  thought.  He  should  be  forgiven, 
because  the  mental  quality  which  was  some- 
times egotistic  was  in  most  hours  the  move- 
ment of  a  powerful  will  and  an  open  heart 
288 


Victor  Hugo 

incapable  of  concealment.  He  made  him- 
self visible  only  at  rare  intervals,  compared 
with  his  grand  public  presentation  of  hu- 
manity and  the  fact  and  presence  of  God. 
In  one  of  his  novels  the  world's  miserable 
stand  forth  in  such  visible  and  lovable  and 
beseeching  attitude  that  the  living  and  ad- 
vancing race  will  not  soon  lose  sight  again 
of  the  unhappy.  He  was  a  painter  greater 
than  those  who  have  covered  canvas  with 
their  conceptions,  for  while  Parrhasius  could 
not  paint  a  groan,  the  art  of  Victor  Hugo 
was  fully  equal  to  that  task.  His  language 
caught  up  the  troubles  of  the  multitude  and 
made  this  groan  sound  in  the  two  hemi- 
spheres— a  pathetic  and  solemn  tone  struck 
from  a  loud-sounding  harp.  He  also  could 
paint  the  gladness  of  the  soul,  but  no  mu- 
sician, no  sculptor,  no  architect,  no  painter, 
could  say  of  human  happiness  what  Hugo 
said :  "  Our  joys  are  shaded.  The  perfect 
smile  belongs  to  God  alone." 

In  this  transition  period,  while  pulpit  and 
church  were  seeking  better  definitions  of 
their  old  terms,  and  asking  Whence  came 
man — from  a  Creator,  or  from  inanimate 
causes,  and  by  what  path  ?  Hugo  was  busy 
with  the  actual  world  applying  the  ideas  of 
289 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

Jesus  on  behalf  of  the  orphans  and  widows — 
"  those  formidable  pleaders  " — made  by  the 
armed  Napoleons,  on  behalf  of  black  slave 
and  white,  the  oppressed  of  the  whole  world. 
What  a  poet  was  he  compared  with  the  Greek 
Anacreon !  For  this  sensual  Pagan  said, 
his  forehead  crowned  with  leaves  and  his 
harp  in  his  hand,  "  Farewell  all  truth,  phi- 
losophy, and  heroes ;  I  shall  sing  only  of 
love."  But  the  modern  poet  said :  "  I  will 
forget  love,  family,  childhood,  song,  and 
leisure  that  I  may  sing  for  the  welfare  of 
the  oppressed."  Beyond  doubt  his  fifty 
years  of  sympathetic  opinion  and  eloquent 
speech  have  entered  into  the  better  laws  and 
kinder  philanthropy  of  the  century. 

We  are  thankful  for  the  more  symmetrical 
men  of  the  times,  for  the  calmer  poets,  the 
more  careful  philosophers,  the  men  of  pro- 
found learning  and  of  childlike  modesty, 
thankful  for  those  minds  which  lead  us  in- 
side the  sanctuary  and  whose  prayers  and 
hymns  keep  up  the  never  dying  flame  upon 
the  altar,  thankful  for  the  great  good  done 
by  the  Calvinists  and  the  Komanists,  and  to 
all  those  flowing  tides  of  gratitude  we  may 
add  a  feeling  of  gladness  that  such  a  man  as 
this  Yictor  came  such  as  he  was  and  passed 
290 


Victor  Hugo 

along  through  our  century  by  the  pathway 
now  marked  by  his  footsteps.  His  intense 
manner  aroused  a  sleeping  myriad.  His 
funeral  in  France  attended  in  some  manner 
by  a  million  persons  tells  us  how  his  writings 
and  presence  have  affected  that  vast  multi- 
tude that  knows  the  sorrow  of  poverty,  the 
cruelty  of  despotism,  and  the  sweet  of  lib- 
erty and  equality.  In  that  great  moment 
the  Pantheon  was  secularized  that  so  great  a 
friend  of  mankind  might  rest  in  a  great 
tomb.  Instead  of  being  secularized  it  was 
rather  made  more  religious  by  receiving 
within  its  walls  that  forehead  that  was  fur- 
rowed by  frowns  against  wrong,  those  lips 
that  had  long  been  eloquent  over  the  being 
of  God. 

In  his  prophecy  and  sublime  prose-poem 
upon  God,  Ezekiel  many  times  addresses  the 
son  of  man  to  urge  him  to  mark  and  adore 
that  Divine  Providence  from  whom  came 
the  mystery  of  life.  "  Son  of  man "  is  a 
phrase  that  stands  for  the  average  power  and 
nobleness  of  human  nature.  It  points  out 
man  in  his  youth,  in  his  romance,  reverence, 
love,  ambition,  vivacity,  logic,  and  hope. 
Infancy  with  its  weakness  has  passed  away, 
age  with  its  decline  has  not  come.  Christ 
291 


The  Message  of  David  Swing 

took  this  title  as  a  part  of  His  honour,  but 
He  was  also  the  son  of  God.  Looking  into 
our  period  we  can  detect  here  and  there  the 
"sons  of  men."  Victor  Hugo  was  one  of 
these.  He  was  the  son  of  our  century — a 
full  expression  of  the  science,  reason,  art, 
benevolence,  and  broad  religion  that  have 
taken  deep  root  in  its  rich  soil ;  he  was  the 
full  expression  of  the  millions  who  are  weep- 
ing their  way  along  as  they  journey  from 
poverty's  cradle  to  poverty's  grave ;  he  was 
the  son  of  the  rationalism  of  Europe  which 
has  filled  the  era  with  great  minds  able  to 
live  great  lives  ;  he  was  the  son  of  America 
in  his  devotion  to  a  universal  liberty  and 
equality,  a  man  reared  upon  the  truths  which 
made  all  those  statesmen  who  are  dear  to 
hearts  this  side  the  sea;  he  was  a  son  of 
France  in  his  passionate  imagery,  fancy,  and 
in  his  matchless  language ;  a  son  of  religion, 
too,  for  going  out  of  the  doors  of  the  old 
Church  he  did  it  to  enter  at  once  the  holier 
Temple  of  the  Almighty.  As  some  one  has 
said,  "He  turned  his  back  to  the  Church 
that  he  might  turn  his  face  to  God." 

With  history  full  of  such  names,  with  the 
air  full  of  gratitude  for  such  lives  and  full 
of  lamentation  for  such  graves,  with  these 
292 


Victor  Hugo 

pictures  before  them  of  colossal  minds  ex- 
tracting happiness  and  power  from  a  divine 
faith,  the  young  men  of  our  day  should  feel 
that  atheism  possesses  no  intellectual  charm  ; 
that  religion  in  its  essence  is  a  height  to 
which  even  genius  may  be  glad  to  climb. 

The  Atheists  recently  attempted  to  hold  a 
general  meeting.  It  was  to  be  in  Home,  that 
it  might  seem  more  like  a  triumph  of  a  proud 
reason  over  a  superstitious  faith.  But  it 
failed.  Not  a  single  delegate  from  all  Eng- 
land was  present— few  from  any  point. 
There  is  not  that  in  atheism  that  can  inspire 
the  heart.  Men  have  made  long  pilgrimages, 
have  journeyed  in  hunger  and  storm,  but 
this  travel  has  never  been  towards  an  empty 
life  and  the  death  of  a  brute,  but  always 
towards  a  God  or  the  tomb  of  Him  who 
said,  "  I  am  the  resurrection  and  the  life." 
God  is  the  life  of  the  heart. 

May  our  century  rear  out  of  its  measure- 
less resources  more  great  natures  like  that  of 
Yictor  Hugo  ;  men  who  will  make  humanity 
sound  forth  in  grand  music,  and  who,  with 
an  inspired  mantle,  will  smite  the  stream  of 
atheism  until  its  waters  shall  part  and  open 
up  for  our  millions  of  youth  an  easy  pathway 
between  their  souls  and  God ! 
293 


Index 


ADAM'S  sin,  129 
Adamses,  the,  95 
Addison,  Joseph,  65 
/Esop,  45 
Anacreon,  290 
Anarchistic  Americans,  192 
Antonius,  Marcus,  215,  228, 

230,  240 
Apelles,  93 
Archbishops  of  Canterbury 

and  Westminster,  1 86 
Arethusa,  119 
Aristotle,  251 
Arnold,  Benedict,  39,  67 
Aspasia,  240 
Athens,  93,  164 
Atticus,  Crassus,  208,  215 
Augsean  stables,  232 
Augustine,  267 
Aurelius,  Marcus,  45 

BABYLON,  263 

Bacon,  Lord,  quoted,  1 1 

Bancroft,  George,  27 

Barrows,  John  H.,  21 

Beatrice,  a  poetical  memory 
to  Dante,  236;  meets 
Dante,  241 ;  why  se- 
lected, 246-247 ;  romantic 
ideal  of  highest  things, 
252 

Beauty  in  life  and  teaching, 
16-17 

Beecher,  Henry  Ward,  12, 
13,  15,  Chapter  VI,  124- 


13% ;  greatest  years  of, 
1845-1865;  made  an 
American  politics  and  an 
American  religion,  127  ; 
hated  scholastic  theology, 
130  ;  eloquence  of,  made 
history,  131  ;  corruptions 
of  slavery,  132 ;  great 
work  of,  134-137;  g°ne 
with  other  champions  of 
freedom,  138 

Beecher,  Lyman,  126-129 

Beethoven,  265 

Bellus  homo,  216 

Boethius,  251 

British  army  in  Philadel- 
phia, 58 

Broad  church,  156 

Bronte  Sisters,  264 

Brooks,  Phillips,  10,  13, 
Chapter  VII,  139-158; 
title  Bishop  lost  in,  139  ; 
"  great  commoner  "  of  re- 
ligion, 141 ;  great  men  of 
Episcopacy,  143 ;  longed 
for  Christian  unity  and 
equality,  150-152 ;  elo- 
quence of,  152-154;  les- 
sons for  all  churchmen  in, 
155 ;  reason  will  trans- 
form all  churches,  157- 

158 

Browning,  Elizabeth  B.,  239 
Browning,  Robert,  239 
Bruce,  Heart  of  the,  28 


294 


Index 


Brutus,  Decimus,  215 
Brutus,    Marcus,    210,    215, 

227 

Buchanan,  James,  60 
Bunyan,  John,  90 
Burke,  Edmund,  65,  140 
Burr,  Aaron,  67 

CAESAR,  AUGUSTUS,  250 

Caesar,  Julius,  210,  212,  214, 
220 ;  death  of,  225-227  ; 
referred  to,  260 

Caesar,  Octavius,  228 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  242 

Casca,  215,  227 

Castelar,  49 

Cato,  210,  215 

Cavour,  49 

Channing,  Wm.  E.,  IOI,  103 

Charles  I,  85 

Chase,  Salmon  P.,  107 

Chateaubriand,  285 

Cheever,  Dr.  George,  132 

Choate,  Rufus,  27 

Christ  and  Augustus,  250 

Christian  ideas — peace,  lib- 
erty, and  equality — illus- 
trated by  Sumner,  96 

Cicero,  Marcus  Tullius,  94, 
99,  119,  121  ;  slave  and 
librarian  of,  200 ;  let- 
ters from,  201,  202;  de- 
scription of,  203-204 ; 
villas  of,  204-209 ;  as 
scholar,  209 ;  home  fun 
of,  210-212;  as  orator, 
213;  moderate  life  of, 
221  ;  grief  of  at  Tullia's 
death,  224 ;  flight  and 
death  of,  228-230;  re- 
ferred to,  251,  267 

Cicero,  Marcus  (son  of  or- 
ator), 218 


Cicero,  Quintus,  215 
Cimber,  Tullius,  226 
Clay,  Henry,  20,  36,  69,  76, 

95»  I3i 

Cleopatra,  240 
Cleveland,  Grover,  176,  178 
Cole,  J.  R.,  173 
Coleridge,  S.  T.,  131 
Confucius,  93 
Cornelia,  216 
Cornwallis'  surrender,  54 
Cotta,  Dame  Ursula,  268 
Cousin,  Victor,  283 
Cromwell,  Oliver,  1 14 
Cross,  Sir  Robert,  186 
Curtis,  George  Wm.,  14 

DANTE,  n,  23,  38.  04,  108, 

114,  IS1 

Dante,  Chapter  XI,  232- 
259 ;  myths  as  illustra- 
tions, 232-235  ;  Beatrice 
a  poetical  memory  to,  236- 
237 ;  writes  Inferno  in 
Latin,  love-poem  Para- 
diso  in  Italian,  238 ; 
woman  in  classic  and  me- 
diaeval times,  239-241  ; 
Beatrice  met,  241  ;  ban- 
ishment of  Dante,  242 ; 
Paradiso  history  of  a  pe- 
riod, 243-244 ;  fiction, 
245  ;  why  Beatrice  ?  246- 
247 ;  Europe  in  Thirteenth 
Century,  248;  Guelphs 
and  Ghibellines,  249  ;  in- 
fluence of  Paradiso — he- 
roic author,  high  art,  252- 
253  ;  examples  of  beauty, 
254-257 ;  value  of  the 
poem,  258-260 

Danton,  282 

Dartmouth  College,  132 


295 


Index 


Darwinians,  theory  of,  35 
David  and  ^Eneas,  250 
Decoration  Day,  Chapter 
VIII,  159-175;  reasons 
for,  159-160;  honourable 
wars  of  United  States, 
161 ;  sorrows  of  the  war, 
161-163;  peace  commis- 
sion and  Lincoln,  163- 
164 ;  slavery  and  war, 
165  ;  flowers  for  triumph 
of  right,  166-167  ;  injus- 
tice to  Negro,  169-171; 
national  harmony,  172- 

'75 
DC  Monarchia,  modernness 

of,  249 

Demosthenes,  115,  119 
De  Soto,  63 

De  Stael,  Madame,  262,  283 
De  Tocqueville,  119 
Dido  and  Lavinia,  246 
Douglas,  Stephen  A.,  60 
Douglass,  Frederick,  no 
Duty  of  the  Pulpit  to  Social 
Unrest,  Chapter  IX,  176- 
196 ;  labour   and   capital 
at  odds,  176;  the  strike, 
178;  pulpit  near  the  peo- 
ple,   1 80;  labour   unions, 
180-187  ;    American   an- 
archists, 192 ;  theological 
preaching  worthless,  193- 
194 ;    pulpit   must   teach 
for  to-day's   needs,    195- 
196 

EAST  INDIA  COMPANY,  69 
Egeria,  241 
Eloquence,  153-154 
Emerson,  R.  W.,  15,  115 
Epictetus,  44 
Esther,  Queen,  262 


Everett,  Edward,  115 
Ezekiel,  291 

FAUST,  234 

February,  37 

Fenelon,  145 

Florence,  n 

Formian  villa,  the,  202 

France,    47 ;     religion     of, 

278-284 
Franklin,      Benjamin,      39, 

162,  185,  264,  280 
Furman,  Rev.  Dr.,  134 

GARFIELD,  JAMES  A.,  20, 
Chapter  III,  72-87; 
death  and  character  of, 
74-75  ;  humble  start,  76- 
77  ;  greatness  of,  78  ;  uni- 
versally mourned,  80-81 ; 
religion  of,  82-83  ;  Amer- 
ican history  rich  in  men, 
84-85  ;  Lincoln  and,  86  ; 
lesson  of  mortality,  87 

Garrison,  Wm.  L.,  12,  60, 
107 

Gladstone,  Wm.  E^  22,  27 

Goethe,  234 

Grant,  Ulysses  S.,  136 

Greece,  119 

Greeley,  Horace,  107 

HALLAM,  HENRY,  239 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  65 

Hamilton,  Sir  Wm.,  238 

Harcourt,  Sir  Wm.,  186 

Harpies,  234 

Hayes,  Rutherford  B.,  169 

Henry,  Patrick,  69 

Hercules,  232 

Herrennius,  230 

High  and  Low  church,  146 

Hillis,     Newell      Dwight  : 


296 


Index 


Swing  Memorial  Address, 
9-32 ;  Swing  as  pastor, 
9 ;  his  death,  10 ;  place 
in  Chicago,  II  ;  a  poetic 
preacher,  13,  14;  for- 
bears, 15;  a  minister  of 
culture,  17 ;  worth  of 
beauty  and  imagination, 
18-21  ;  Swing's  optimism, 
21-24 »  genius  of  good 
sense  in  religion,  25—26; 
Chicago's  debt  to,  27-28  ; 
great  qualities  of,  29 

Homer,  94,  114,  233,  246 

Hortensius,  210,  212,  215 

Howard,  John,  12 

Hugo,  Victor,  Chapter  XIII, 
278-293;  religion,  ra- 
tionalism, and  atheism  in 
France,  278-284;  ration- 
alism parent  of  Hugo, 
282 ;  romance  and  re- 
ligion of,  287  ;  powerful 
use  of  Christ's  ideas  by, 
290 ;  intensity  of,  aroused 
millions,  291 ;  character- 
ization of,  292 ;  a  foe  to 
atheism,  293 

Hydra,  232 

Inferno  of  Dante,  238 
Irving,  Washington,  131 
Ithuriel,  234 

JEAN  VALJEAN,  288 
Jefferson,  Thomas,  95 
Jerusalem,  72 
Jesus  Christ,  23,  26,  33,  34, 

64,  70.  73 
Jim  Crow  car,  133 
Johnson,  Dr.  Samuel,  65 
Judaea,  37,  52 
Justinian,  94 


KERBERUS,  233 
King  Lear,  23 
King,  Thomas  Starr,  III 
Klopstock,  234 

L^ELIA  girls,  the,  216 

Lafayette,  65 

Lamartine,  131,  284 

Lamennais,  286 

Lepidus,  228 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  12,  23, 
33-70,  84,  86,  95,  105, 
114,  126,  164,  169,  264 

Locke,  John,  238 

London  Bank,  69 

Longfellow,  H.  W.,  115,  131 

Lord's  Prayer  in  Dante,  152 

Lot's  wife,  233 

Lovejoy,  Elijah  P.,  132 

Louis  XIV,  152 

Luther,  Martin,  1 14,  Chap- 
ter XII,  260-277 ;  our 
modern  glories  inherited, 
260-263 ;  humble  birth 
and  youth  of  Luther,  264- 
267  ;  street  singing,  268  ; 
studies,  270-27 1  ;  quali- 
ties, 272 ;  leaving  law, 
entered  church,  274 ;  in 
convent  no  Bible,  but 
Latin  poets,  275-276 ; 
piety  of,  276 ;  elements 
of  leadership,  277 

MABIE,  H.  W.,  quoted,  234 
Macaulay,  T.  B.,  14,  27,131 
Mann,  Horace,  in 
Manning,  Cardinal,  1 86 
Marat,  85 
Mark  Antony,  see  Antonius, 

Marcus 

Marquette,  238 
Mars  and  the  Muses,  49 


297 


Index 


Mary,  Queen  of  Scots,  85 
Marys  and  Magdalens,  240- 

241 

Matilda,  235 
Mathew,  Father,  133 
Meade,  Bishop,  134 
Medici,  the,  126 
Mexican  War,  161 
Mexico,  279 

Michael  Angelo,  93,  99, 126 
Mill,  John  Stuart,  99,  185, 

239,  240 
Miltiades,  28 
Milton,    23,   38,    114,    233, 

234 

Minerva,  240 
Minnesingers,  the,  237 
Mississippi,  the,  63 
Missouri  Compromise,  104 
Mozart,  94,  265 

NAPOLEON,  95,  165,  283 

Nazareth,  72 

Nero,  39 

New  England,  108 

New  Mexico,  264 

Newman,  Cardinal,  49 

New  Testament  and  woman, 

240-241 

Newton,  Sir  Isaac,  238 
Nile,  the,  16,  52 
Numa  Pompilius,  241 

O'CONNELL,  133 
Ovid,  233 
Oxford,  41,  145 

PAINE,  THOMAS,  280 

Palestine,  93 

Parker,  Theodore,  107,  1 10, 

116,  132 

Parrhasius,  44,  94 
Pascal,  Blaise,  99,  194,  282 


Penelope,  246 

Penn,  William,  101 

Pericles,  240,  245 

Pharaohs,  260 

Phidias,  93 

Phillips,  Wendell,  60,  Chap- 
ter V,  107-123;  opening 
career  of,  108-109 ;  elo- 
quent anti-slavery  men, 
Hi;  would  more  har- 
mony with  government 
have  made  Phillips  more 
efficient,  112;  great  men 
differ,  113-115;  religion 
of,  115-117;  need  of, 
118-119;  cause  of  man 
still  worthy,  120;  elo- 
quence, 121  ;  memory  of, 
is  Freedom,  123  ;  referred 
to,  132,  172 

Pitt,  William,  24,  115,  139, 
140 

Plato,  38,  78,  114 

Poetry,  worth  of,  270-272 

Polk,  James  K.,  161 

Polydorus,  234 

Pompey,  215 

Pomponia,  215 

Publius,  215 

Punch  on  Lincoln.  6l 

Puseyism,  144 

Pythagoras,  251 

QUEEN  ELIZABETH,  40 
Queen  Victoria,  81 

RACHEL,  235 

Railroad  labourers'  losses  by 

strikes,  184-185 
Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  40 
Raphael,  23 

Redmond,  Charles  L.,  133 
Richardson,  the  architect,  10 


298 


Index 


Ritualism,  142-150,  156 

Robespierre,  282 

Roland,  Madame,  262 

Roman  empire,  37 

Romanism,  142,  157 

Roman  Home,  A,  Chapter 
X,  199-231  ;  Tiro  and 
Ximenes,  199 ;  Cicero's 
librarian,  200 ;  Cicero 
and  family,  202-204  > 
villas  of  Cicero,  204-209  ; 
humours  and  friends,  210- 
21 6;  social  songs,  217; 
Roman  feast,  220 ;  do- 
mestic troubles,  222-224; 
tragedies,  225-230 

Rome,  93 

Royer-Collard,  284 

Rufus,  210 

Ruskin,  John,  131 

Russia,  165 

ST.  JOHN,  39,  49 

St.  Paul,  39,  95 

St.  Peter's  in  Rome,  24,  94, 

!37 

Salvation  Army,  148 
Satan,  234 
Savonarola,  114,  264 
Seer- like  visions,  19 
Seneca,  93 
Shakespeare,  39,  264 
Smith,  Gerritt,  107 
Socrates,  44,  114,  250 
Solomon,   251  ;    temple   of, 

148 
Spurgeon,   Charles   H.,  13, 

27 

Star-Spangled  Banner,  69 
Statius,  235 
Sterne,  Laurence,  143 
Steuben,  Baron,  58 
Stilling,  philosopher,  265 


Stone  River  battle,  159 

Sumner,  Charles,  Chapter 
IV,  88-106  ;  greatness  of 
national  ideal,  88-94 ; 
career  of  Sumner  essen- 
tially Christian,  9,6  ;  ora- 
tion of,  against  war,  97  ; 
austere  scholarly  coolness 
of,  98-99  ;  peace,  justice, 
liberty,  the  aims  of,  101- 
104  ;  hopefulness  of,  help 
to  Lincoln,  105  ;  spirit  of 
hope  now  needed,  106 ; 
Sumner  referred  to,  107, 
no,  132 

Swift,  Jonathan,  143 

Swing,  David,  see  N.  D. 
Hillis 

TENNYSON,  ALFRED,  23 
Terentia,    wife    of    Cicero, 

203-204 ;  divorce  of,  223 
Texas,  161 
Thucydides,  94 
Tiro,  Marcus  Tullius,  letter 

from,  199-231 
Trebatius,  210,  211 
Tullia,  daughter  of  Cicero, 

203-204,  218  ;    death  ofv 

224 
Tusculum   villa,    the,   204- 

209 

VALLEY  FORGE,  57 

Verres,  211 

Virgil,  39,  94,  114,  195,  232, 

246 
Voltaire,  282,  284 

WAGES  advanced  by  reason, 

not  violence,  187 
Washington  and  Lincoln,  I, 

Chapter    I,    33-53;    sky- 


299 


Index 


watchers  for  signs  of  the 
times,  33-36  ;  the  two  of- 
fer lesson,  Washington  of 
prosperity,  Lincoln  of  ad- 
versity, 39-44 ;  both  fol- 
lowed  by  triumphant 
peace,  46  ;  religion  of,  not 
sectarian  but  rational  and 
filial,  47-49 ;  new  gener- 
ation, new  crisis — what 
will  riches  and  poverty  do 
with  them  ?  50-53 
Washington  and  Lincoln, 
II,  Chapter  II,  54-71; 
Americans  celebrate  birth- 
days, ancients,  death- 
days,  54-55  ;  Washington 
and  Lincoln  to  us  like 
saints  to  Christianity,  56 ; 
trusted  by  their  followers, 
58-59  ;  formed  before  be- 
ing needed,  60;  Punch 
confesses  Lincoln's  great- 


ness, 6 1  ;  retrospect,  62- 
64 ;  warmth  of  heart  in 
both,  65-67  ;  nation  not 
corporation  but  family, 
68-70 

Washington,  George,  65,94, 
114,  120,  285 

Washington,  Martha,  65 

Washington,  Lawrence,  41 

Waterloo,  88,  288 

Webster,  Daniel,  36,  69,  76, 
95,  114,  126,  131,  139 

Wesley,  John,  144 

Whittier,  John  G.,  IOI 

Wilberforce,  131 

Wilson,  Henry,  107 

Winkelmann,  131 

XAVIER,  FRANCIS,  238 

ZENOBIA,  262 
Zulus,  264 


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